10 simple craft ideas for autumn

The best craft ideas are often the simplest and, as the older children will have 'moved on' to nursery and school, the autumn term crafts should be kept especially simple.

One advantage of keeping the crafts simple is that the materials are easily and cheaply obtained, and require minimal preparation - so you can spend as little money and time on them as possible!

So, if you've never introduced your group to a gluestick, now could be the time to begin. If it is your first time, start with a one-off special (Christmas is a good time for this) and you'll quickly find out what works and what doesn't.

1. Sticking: cut food from supermarket magazines, etc. and stick them onto paper plates and bowls using gluesticks. The 'meals' can be as sensible or as silly as the children choose to make them, and topped off with simple cutlery shapes cut out of card. You can then talk about their choices and their favourite foods.
2. Biscuit decorating: food crafts always go down well with children, but you must CHECK FOR ALLERGIES. Make glace icing (icing sugar and a tiny amount of water) thin enough to dollop from teaspoons, but thick enough to stay on the biscuits. Put the icing in bowls and add some food colouring if you want to. Supply bowls of small sweets and '100s and 1000s' as decorations, remembering to keep a supply in reserve for late-comers. You could buy gingerbread men or make specially shaped biscuits, but most toddlers are just as happy slapping sweets onto a couple of rich tea biscuits.
3. Painting: you need to warn parents and have enough overalls for this one, but if you thin down the paint with a little washing-up liquid and water, and avoid the blue/black/purple colours, they are less likely to stain. Use an old white candle to draw simple shapes, letters, numbers, etc. on pieces of paper. The pictures will be magically revealed when the children paint over them. Test the consistency of the paint before doing it with the group and make sure you have plenty of paper and drying space as most children become quite prolific with this activity.
4. Autumn leaves: fix a variety of leaves to the table with double-sided sticky tape. Give the children each a sheet of paper and rub coloured wax crayons sideways over the leaves to create 'rubbings'. Alternatively, collect autumn leaves and use PVA glue to make collages. Be warned though - the leaves will dry and crumble after a few weeks.
5. Hand puppet: turn a small envelope into a hand puppet (9cm x 14cm with a V flap on the back works best). Simply cut off the two bottom corners and make two other V shaped cut-outs in the long edge to push your fingers through and make living hair. The front of the envelope forms the face with the flap giving it a chin! It's now ready to be decorated with crayons, and facial features cut from coloured paper and stuck on with a gluestick.
6. Threading: buy 'Penne Rigate Tricolor' (coloured pasta tubes) or Cheerios (CHECK FOR ALLERGIES) and thread them onto string to make necklaces and bracelets. You can buy bodkins (flat, blunt needles for threading elastic) at a haberdashery to make the threading easier, or tie the string to a paperclip and then squash it to fit through. Important: remind parents not to leave the necklaces with the children when unattended as they could be a choking hazard.
7. Rocket craft for Bonfire Night: using fluorescent coloured card for this craft makes it extremely effective. Cut out a rectangle, a triangle and a trapezoid and stick them together to make a simple rocket. Decorate with glitter or sticky stars and staple a few lengths of red, orange and yellow crepe paper to the bottom as flames. This can be sticky-taped to a short garden cane so that it can swoop through the air with a fiery trail!
8. CD fish mobile: sandwich silver or gold card fins and a loop of wool between two old CDs and finish off with an eye drawn onto a sticky label for a really effective mobile. You will need to use PVA craft glue for this rather than gluesticks. Let it dry before hanging.
9. Birdfeeder pinecones: collect some large pinecones and tie a piece of string firmly to each one. Get the children to smear the pinecones with peanut butter (CHECK FOR ALLERGIES) and roll in a tray of birdseed to make a natural birdfeeder. Provide small food bags for them to take them home in. You can explain how much more difficult it is for the birds to find food in the winter and how kind it is to provide food for them at this time of year.
10. Christmas cards: fold a sheet of A4 black card in half and get the children to decorate it with sticky stars and glitter. You can write on the card with a metallic silver or gold pen, or provide white sticky labels. You could write 'Twinkle, twinkle, little star' across the top of the front, 'How I wonder what you are' across the bottom of the front, and a suitable message about the Christmas Star inside.

Need more ideas? Inspiration can come from books and websites but also from a trip to a scrapstore or craft shop. If you have toddlers of your own, you can adopt or adapt the best ideas from their nurseries. The cheapest activities will recycle junk that friends or family are throwing out - you will probably end up with an eye for 'creative' junk and start your own collection!

Finally, click here to browse the ideas in the craft section of the Playtime website and find out how to turn a toilet roll into a space rocket or make a hedgehog from handprints.

Fiona Burt

Last Updated 07 December 2009