50 easy fall crafts to do with toddlers right now

Fall is officially here! And whether you’re excited about it or not, it’s the perfect time to introduce little ones to fall crafts.

Fall DIY crafts are especially fun to do during that tricky gap between errands and dinner. It’s not easy, but I try to do a couple of weekly crafts with my kids during this time. Lately, we’ve been inspired by the changing leaves and dropping temperatures, which we’re channeling into some pretty cool artwork. If you’re looking for fun fall activities, we’ve got you covered.

Here are 50 fall-themed crafts that are perfect for doing with little kids:

1. Fingerprint trees

With stamp ink or paint, make leaves on drawn-out trees using your fingerprints. These are fun, easy to make and easy to clean up!

2. Popcorn music makers

Save those old tissue paper rolls, tape the ends with wax paper and fill them with popcorn kernels. Let your little ones decorate the outside and create some music!

3. Apple painting

Slice apples in half, paint and use them to stamp on paper. That makes for a fun afternoon—and good use of those excess apples.

4. Leaf art

There are so many different things you can do with leaves, but one of my favorite is to just create simple fun pictures with them. You can make animals out of them, trace around them or create a cool collage. The options are endless!

5. Leaf people

Take googly eyes, leaves, toothpicks, glue and construction paper and you can create one fun leaf dude!

6. Paper plate pumpkins

Paint paper plates orange, add a green construction paper stem and a brown pipe cleaner for a squiggly vine. Then let your toddler get creative with some finger paint for the face!

7. Fall wreaths

Using the leaves your little one collected this fall season, craft a fun leaf wreath for the backdoor.

8. Acorn handprints

Using two different shades of brown paint, paint the top of you little one’s hand with the darker shade and the bottom with the lighter shade. Press their hand down on a piece of construction paper and you’ve got an acorn!

9. Pumpkin painting

Spread some newspaper out on the table or floor, grab a few pumpkins and paint the day away.

10. Cheerios on the cob

Cut out a few pieces of paper shaped like corn cobs and let your little one glue on some cheerios to make kernels.

11. Sucker ghouls

Wrap tootsie pops or dumdums with coffee filters, tie the underneath portion with a small piece of string and take a black marker to make two eyes. You’ve got cute little ghouls with something sweet underneath!

12. Scarecrow puppets

Using paper bags and some construction paper, make scarecrow puppets. These are fun to make—and play with!

13. Q-tip skeletons

Help your little one craft a skeleton with Q-tips glued to black paper.

14. Tissue pie slice

Cut up some pieces of tissue paper and a slice of construction paper. Then let your little one glue away! Try orange paper for pumpkin pie, brown for pecans and green for apples.

15. Thankful tree

Draw a tree on a piece of paper and write the things that your little one is thankful for on smaller pieces of paper. Let me glue those pieces to their tree and continue to go over the things they are thankful for and why they are thankful for those things.

16. Pumpkin rocks

Paint rocks with orange and black to create pumpkins and jack-o-lanterns. Hide a few around town if you are feeling up to it!

17. Paper plate bat

Paint or color paper plates and coffee filters black. Glue the coffee filters to the sides of the paper plate to mimic wings. Add some fun eyes, sharp teeth and a piece of string at the top and hang these from the ceiling.

18. Gauze mummies

Grab some gauze out of the first aid kit that’s tucked away in the closet, cut it up and let your little one make some funny gauze mummies. Add a set of googly eyes to the mummy when done.

19. Paper plate owls

Using paper plates, muffin tin liners and brown paper bag trimmings, make an owl to hang on the refrigerator.

20. Leaf mobiles

Tie some fallen leaves from the backyard to some fishing wire and hang them on an embroidery hoop. You can hang these in their room or even outside for some fun, seasonal decor!

21. Apple suncatchers

Cut the an outline of an apple and stick it to contact paper. Then cut out small pieces of tissue paper, fill the inner apple with those pieces, top with addition contact paper, cut out and hang it on your window. When the sun sets in the evening, it will catch the apple just right and beam a ray of fun colors throughout your house.

22. Bubble wrap corn

Save that bubble wrap that comes in your weekly Amazon shipment, cut it out in the shape of a piece of corn, paint it and let dry.

23. Tissue paper bird feeder

Empty tissue paper rolls make great bird feeders. Let your little one smear peanut butter on them, roll them in birdseed, string them and hang them outside.

24. Tissue candy corn

To recreate this yummy snack, use yellow, orange and white tissue paper to create the shape of candy corn.

25. Puffy cotton ball ghosts

For this fun activity, all you need are cotton balls, black construction paper and some googly eyes. These are super cute and fun to touch!

26. Paper plate spider webs

Using a hole puncher, cut holes around the outside of a paper plate and let your little one string yarn throughout the holes. This little craft is great for those fine motor skills!

27. Clothes pin bats

Paint coffee filters and clothespins black, clip them together and string them with some fishing wire. These make for great pieces of Halloween decor!

28. Corn painting

Use a few ears of corn to paint with. The patterns are fun and who doesn’t love to paint with food!

29. Tissue acorn

Using tissue or torn paper, craft an acorn and glue it to some construction paper. You can make these big or small!

30. Name leaf tree

Pick up some faux leaves from your craft store and spell your little one’s name out with them and glue them onto a construction paper tree.

31. Felt apple pie

Take a small pie pan and line it with felt. Add colored pom-poms to make an “apple filling” and cut addition felt strips for the top. Encourage your little one to make a lattice on top of the pie with the felt strips. This craft is one that they can play with over and over again!

32. Potato leaf stamping

Cut the end of a potato in the shape of a leaf and let your little one stamp on a piece of paper.

33. Popsicle stick apple cores

Cut out the shape of the top and bottom of an apple, glue popsicle sticks in the middle for the core, add a few dots for seeds and glue a magnet on the back!

34. Cookie spiders

Snack crafts are always fun and these cookie spiders are yummy and so easy to make. Stick pretzel sticks into the sides of Oreos (to create spider legs) and add a few edible eye to the tops.

35. Edible bones

Add small marshmallows to the end of pretzel sticks and dip into some white chocolate. They will look like “bones” and be a perfect Halloween snack!

36. Candy corn hands

Paint your little ones hand to mimic a candy corn and press it down on a piece of paper. Hand-printing is always a hit with the little ones!

37. Pumpkin stamping

Cut a pumpkin up in various sizes and let your little ones use the pieces to stamp on construction paper.

38. Handprint scarecrow

Paint your little one’s hand three different colors for the scarecrow face, shirt and pants. Stamp their hand down, let them add some hair and eyes and you’ve got a handprint scarecrow.

39. Popsicle stick spiders

Glue together four popsicle sticks, paint black and top with googly eyes!

40. Apple bird feeders

Cut an apple in half, core out a small hole with a spoon, top with birdseed and set outside. These are great for wildlife and 100% edible, which means no mess is left behind!

41. Paper plate scarecrows

Make a scarecrow out of paper plate, glue it to a popsicle stick and stick it in your flower beds!

42. Nature mural

Using all the sticks, leaves, acorns and other nature finds, glue them to a large poster board to create a nature collage. Then help your little one with identifying the different objects!

43. Hand-traced turkey

A great way to encourage fine motor skills and writing is by tracing. Encourage your little one to trace their hand on a piece of construction paper, cut it out and create a turkey out of it. All you need is a beak, feet and some wings!

44. Tissue tree

Similar to the above tissue paper crafts, make a tree using tissue paper for the trunk and leaves.

45. Owl rocks

Paint rocks to look like owls or other fall creatures.

46. Gratitude book

Print out pictures of your little one with family members, pets, etc, place them in a photo book and let them flip through the pages.

47. Franken feet

Instead of hand painting, paint your little one’s foot green, place it on a piece of paper upside down, add some eyes, stitches and black hair.

48. Paper plate footballs

Cut paper plates into the shape of footballs, paint them and add some yarn for the laces. This is a perfect Sunday craft!

49. Tree bark coloring

This craft is a favorite of ours and such a fun thing to do outdoors. Wrap a large piece of paper around the base of a tree and let your little one color on it. The tree bark will come through making for a unique pattern and work of art!

50. Pumpkin cheerio tracing

Print off a picture of a pumpkin and let your little one trace the outline with cheerios or fruit loops!

Fall crafts are such a fun way to celebrate the season with little ones—and then for you to tuck away for cherishing in years to come.

Related Stories

Toddler Learn & Play

Amazing mom hack keeps kids busy when you’re on the go

Toddler Learn & Play

5 ways to raise little readers

Toddler Learn & Play

Airplane mode can soothe toddler tantrums—yes, really