Autumn Art Project for Kids

My mom is an elementary school art teacher. She gave me this autumn art project idea years ago, when I was leading an after school program in Vancouver, BC. for grades 4-6. (For those of you who have read my story, you might remember the time when I worked with kids in the inner city of Vancouver. If you’d like to read it, check out my ebook Goodnight to My Thoughts of You here.)

Today, I tried out this art project with my own kids, ages 4, 7, and 9, while my 2-year-old was napping.

Materials:

black construction paper
white pencil or white crayon
white construction paper
scraps or sheets of construction paper in fall colors: red, orange, yellow, brown
scissors
glue sticks

Directions:

Step 1: Using white pencil or crayon, draw a tree with branches on black construction paper. My kids needed extra paper because they weren’t happy with their first try and wanted to try again. It helped when I told them that every tree is different, so it doesn’t have to look a certain way. 

Step 2: Cut out tree and branches. Younger children may need to cut branches and trunks of the tree separately, while older children can cut out more complicated tree branches.

Step 3: Cut out hills or grass from the excess black construction paper.

Step 4: Glue hill or grass to the bottom of the white construction paper. It is a good idea to keep the white paper vertical rather than horizontal, so the tree has more room.

Step 5: Glue tree and branches to the white construction paper. Try placing it a little to the right or left to see where you like it best.

Step 6: Using the fall-colored construction paper scraps, rip out small pieces of paper that are sort of in the shape of leaves. Small pieces look nice, so rip larger pieces in half.

Step 7: Glue leaves to the tree branches. Some leaves might be falling from the tree. Some might be at the foot of the tree, or in piles around the tree.

Step 8: Using black construction paper, cut out more fall/autumn shapes, like a moon, owl, bat, pumpkin, cat, or anything you like, and glue it to your scene.

 My 4-year-old did this project in 15 minutes.

My 7-year-old took 25 minutes.

My 9-year-old spent over an hour and said this project “took a lot of TLC.”

 Sometimes, after a long day of homeschool lessons, you have to take a break and do an art project. Maybe you will find this free autumn art project tutorial helpful if you are an elementary school teacher, a homeschool teacher, or if you just like to do crafts with your kids. Enjoy!

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This post is part of the 31 Days of Writing Challenge. I have taken the challenge to post every day in the month of October. Most will be on the topic of pregnancy, since I am in my last 31 days before my 5th baby is due (well, technically she is due Nov. 9, but that doesn’t mean much to me, since my 2nd baby was 24 days late.

Thank you so much for joining me! As always, feel free to leave a comment on any of my posts. I would love to hear your side of the conversation.

xo,

Chelsea