Paint Fall Foliage With Hugs and Kisses

This picture of Fall foliage was created
entirely with dots.

      This picture was painted with Dot paint markers. Dot paints are frequently purchased for early learning center art activities. These paint bottles have foam tips and are just the right size for little hands to squeeze and paint with. The round shapes of my tree's foliage are actually painted coffee filters that are pasted onto a large piece of blue construction paper after drying. I cut a simple tree trunk from brown construction paper to paste on top of the blue background as well. The blank circular shape is for each child to "carve" their names inside after they have completed the assignment. 

      Because dot painting is so easy to do, it is important for teachers to give young students enough of a challenge when filling in space with their paints. A picture like this will take a preschool student at least forty minutes or more to finish. Teachers may have students complete the foliage on one day and then assemble the picture with additions to the trunk, sky and ground on a second day. In any case, one large dot picture should take a week for three to five year old children to complete nicely.

      Encourage students to fill in all of the spaces. Then give them markers of similar color and demonstrate how to add Capital Xs to every circular shape. This may appear on the surface to be busy work but it serves the purpose of training small motor skills in very young students by virtue of a pleasant activity. Here are a few goals associated with the activity that teachers may wish to include within a weekly lesson plan:

• Color matching
• Writing the Capital letter "X"
• Learning about color families or cool vs. warm colors
• Defining space
• Defining boundaries in space
• Manipulating objects by squeezing and placement
• Recognizing and reproducing geometric shapes
• Teaching science concepts to children: this one would be photosynthesis.
• Learning about additional symbolism given to letters, i.e. hugs and kisses are x's and o's

Paint, Cut and Paste a Leafy River Scene

      This fall leaf art lesson was inspired by a very popular children's book, "Leaf Man" by Lois Ehlert. View and hear the book below.
      The project may be completed over several consecutive days in an early learning center environment:

• First day: Collect and share fall leaves from your center's playground and/or surrounding neighborhood.
• Second day: Draw and cut many stencil patterns from the leaves that students have collected from the previous day. Let students play with the stencils, discovering how these can be layered or moved about in order to mimic the creatures depicted in the Leaf Man book.
• Third day: Draw plastic combs through acrylic and glitter paints on construction paper to recreate the Autumn colors found in the student's leaf collection.
• Fourth day: Trace the leaf stencils onto the decorated papers and cut them out. Now let each student paste together his or her own river scene depicting fish and turtles similar to those illustrated in the Leaf Man book.
• Fifth day: Let the students help you display their dry art works in the hallway or classroom of their school. Serve up some warm cider or chocolate and talk about all the things they have accomplished while enjoying the fall leaves!

      Harcourt Trade Publishers also includes a fun teacher's guide for an alternative art project. Below I have linked to additional fall leaf lessons that young students may enjoy.

• Fall Line Leaves from The Art of Education
• Fall Leaves Lesson from Deep Space Sparkle
• Why do Autumn Leaves Change Color?
• Art School: Fall of the leaf
• Explore fall themes to develop early learning centers
• Preschool themes and lessons about fall

Students paint, cut and paste leafy fish and turtles to swim in their colorful blue river.

A detail of the paper turtle cut from papers combed with glitter paints.

Young students can achieve very professional looking results when they work
 from stencils. Collecting, tracing and cutting leaf stencils is a very complex
exercise for little students but it teaches them confidence, patience and a
set of tasks that will generate excellent results. Chunk down lofty goals into
 to smaller tasks that may be performed successfully and your little artists
will achieve great things!

This popular children's book is read by Jonah.

Craft a Paper War Bonnet

To craft a war bonnets, you will need a tape measure to determine the
circumference of each student's head. Cut strips of construction paper
approximately one additional inch longer than the measurement of
each child's head. Staple the two ends together so that these overlap by the
additional inch after the paper band has been decorated with markers
depicting native motifs. Cut and paste on to the backside of the
headband, feathers made from colorful construction paper. You may
also fringe the edges of the papers by slashing these with
scissors if you'd like.

      Feathered war bonnets (also called warbonnets or headdresses) are worn by honored Plains Indian men. In the past they were sometimes worn into battle, but most often worn for ceremonial occasions as is the case today. They are seen as items of great spiritual and magical importance. The eagle is considered by Plains tribes as the greatest and most powerful of all birds, and thus the finest bonnets are made out of its feathers.

      Its beauty was considered of secondary importance; the bonnet's real value was in its supposed power to protect the wearer. The bonnet is still only to be worn on special occasions and is highly symbolic.

      The bonnet had to be earned through brave deeds in battle because the feathers signified the deeds themselves. Some warriors might have obtained only two or three honor feathers in their whole lifetime, so difficult were they to earn. The bonnet was also a mark of highest respect because it could never be worn without the consent of the leaders of the tribe. A high honor, for example, was received by the warrior who was the first to touch an enemy fallen in battle, for this meant the warrior was at the very front of fighting. Feathers were notched and decorated to designate an event and told individual stories such as killing, capturing an enemy's weapon and shield, and whether the deed had been done on horseback or foot.

      After about ten honors had been won, the warrior went out to secure the eagle feathers with which to make his bonnet. In some tribes these had to be purchased from an individual given special permission to hunt the bird; a tail of twelve perfect feathers could bring the seller as much as a good horse. Some tribes permitted a warrior to hunt his own eagles. This was a dangerous and time-consuming mission and meant that he had to leave the tribe and travel to the high country where the bird could be found. When the destination had been reached, ceremonies were conducted to appeal to the spirits of the birds to be killed.

       A chief's war bonnet is made of feathers received for good deeds to his community and is worn in high honor. Each feather would represent a good deed. A warrior's war bonnet, such as the famous war bonnet of Roman Nose, the Cheyenne warrior, was said to protect him during battle. In several instances, Roman Nose, wearing his war bonnet, rode back and forth before soldiers of the United States Army during battles of the Indian Wars and, despite being fired upon by many soldiers, was unscathed.

• Read More About Native American Headdresses

Draw a Design from A Spider's Web

Start your web design by randomly selecting a point, 
on a sheet of black construction paper, somewhere in 
the center of your paper.  Then draw, with the help of
 a ruler, lines from that central point out to the edges
 of the paper. Your design should look something like 
a giant sliced pie.

Then take either a bottle of white school glue or black puff 
paint bottle, and squeeze out a thin line of liquid tracing the 
drawing thus far. Then, very carefully, squeeze out the 
intersecting spiral lines of the spider's web pattern leaving 
large spaces approximately 1/2 inch to 1 or 2 inches apart.

Next, you will need to fill in these spaces of your web design 
with chalk pastels. After completing the design, Teachers may 
spray fix the pastels with either a special fixative purchased 
for the preservation of chalk pastel drawings or with 
a inexpensive hair spray.

A close up view of my spider's web design. This art project 
is an exercise in calculation, glue application, and a 
introduction to chalk pastels. I recommend it for 2nd 
through 4th grade students.

Craft a Ruote Pasta Web

      These little Ruote, more commonly known as wagon wheel pasta in America, make interesting design elements in a spider web craft for early learners.

      First, teachers will need to dye these Ruote pasta black:

• Add the dryed Route pasta to a large zip-lock plastic bag. (1lb. per large freezer bag at a time)
• Include a few teaspoons of rubbing alcohol and a few drops of black food coloring inside the bag with the dryed pasta.
• Close the bag tight and shake. 
• Pour this pasta out onto a napkin or paper towel to let it dry either in the sunshine or overnight in a warm place. 

 Left, a view of the Ruote pasta spider web from the side.  Right, a view of the pasta spider web from above.

      Once you have prepared the dried pasta for your young students, you will need to gather the following supplies:

• black construction paper
• white school glue
• dyed black Ruote pasta
• white tempera or acrylic paint
• newsprint to cover the table with
• Q-tips and cast off plastic lids for the gluing process

Step-by-step Instructions:

1. First, have the young students play at arranging the pasta on the table top before actually gluing it down to the paper. Talk to them about the shape, texture and color of the pasta while they experiment with arranging it.
2. Give each student a handful of pasta, a black piece of construction paper, a plastic lid full of liquid white school glue and a Q-tip for dipping into the glue.
3. Demonstrate to them, at their table, how to dip the Q-tip into the glue and then glop it onto the construction paper. This process of applying glue to the paper will help little people add enough glue for the pasta to stick to the paper but not so much glue that they cannot control it's application all together.
4. Now the pasta may be layered on top of the glue and arranged in a web like pattern. 
5. These 'spider webs' will need to dry overnight in the classroom.
6. On the following day students should each be given another plastic lid filled with non-toxic white paint. 
7. Show your early learners how to dip their fingers into the white paint and dab it lightly onto the very tops of the Ruote in order to highlight the pasta's design. 
8. Let the webs dry again. This takes only an hour or less.

More Fall Crafts Using Pasta:

• Pasta Peace Bracelet
• Colored & Glittered Pasta Pumpkins 

Draw a Shaded White Spider Web

      During the Fall season, I frequently focus student's assignments on those themes that are inspired by the natural world. Drawing spider webs is a great way to include design principles, drawing techniques and science all together in one project. Students will need a few simple supplies for this drawing exercise:

• a large piece of black construction paper
• a white led pencil or white conte or white pastel etc... 

      Instruct the students to first draw a large X shape anywhere on their paper and divide the rest of the drawing into pie shaped pieces using their white lead pencils. Next they will need to draw a spiral design working their way out from the center of the web to the edges of the paper. Within this spiral they need to further divide the web sections into small rectangular shapes. Then they will need to shade each of these small shapes in order to create a similar web to the one I have shown in the photograph above. Students may also wish to include a large black spider somewhere within their web design as well.

      With this drawing exercise, students will learn how to shade a tiny space gradually, the differences between positive and negative space, and also about repeating patterns. I recommend the exercise for fifth or sixth graders.

Draw More Spider Webs:

• Mondrian Spider Webs
• Anansi the Spider
• Invisible drawings: Spiderwebs

Wad, Wrap and Tape A Fall Pumpkin Craft

       Harvest an entire "field" of pumpkins this school year without the mess and toil! Masking tape comes in many different colors and is an excellent craft material for young students to work with. Below I have included just one of the many craft ideas that I have developed for young students in my classroom using masking tape. Teachers will need to purchase this tape in orange and green for this Fall pumpkin craft. They will also need newsprint, small paper bags and green chenille stems in order to complete the the pumpkin pictured below. Also, take this opportunity to speak to your students about what it means to recycle materials while crushing and repurposing old newsprint for the stuffing used to craft their paper pumpkins.

Directions:

1. Crush and wad newsprint into a ball resembling a pumpkin shape. 
2. Stuff a small paper bag with the newsprint wad.
3. Crush the top of the bag into a stem shape and twist a piece of green masking tape around this "stem" to seal the bag. 
4. Now twist the stem and mask it with more green tape until the stem has been completely covered.
5. Next cover the lower half of the pumpkin with orange masking tape strips approximately two to three inches long. Cover all of the remaining brown or white parts of the bag.
6. The bag's corners should be eventually taped down as well and the bottom completely covered.
7. Twist a springy, soft green chenille stem around the pumpkin's stem for added texture and effect!

An excellent alternative material to use in place of paint for crafting Fall pumpkins is colored masking tape, especially
if you are teaching "art on a cart" and need to keep mess down to a minimum.

Weave Indian Corn for Autumn Fun!

An example of woven Indian corn.

      This craft project for fall is a classic. It is both simple and fitting for any classroom teacher's October theme. I suggest that it is best taught to 3rd graders. You will need to cut a large corn shaped pattern and cut across the width of the shape with narrow slashes. Do not cut through the end pieces of the cob's shape. You are going to be tucking the narrow strips of paper into the shape as you are weaving. Alternate at least three Autumn colors of paper as you go. I chose to include tan, yellow, and pale orange, but you could use many other color combinations. Teachers may wish to purchase several lovely ears of Indian corn to display in the classroom so that students can make comparisons between their own color selections and those found in nature. 

• For the corn cob you will only be weaving strips in one direction by the same method shown in the video below. 
• The cob shape will be slashed down the length of it's center only but not all the way to it's end. 
• As students weave these paper strips they may also use masking tape on the backside of the cob to keep the woven strips in place. 
• The backside of the cob will be glued to green or tan leaves and the tape will not be seen in any case. This little step helps young students to manipulate the woven craft to greater satisfaction.
•  When your woven Indian corn is finished, simply snip off the ruff edges to create an polished looking project. 
• Then glue on a few green leaves to frame the cob nicely.

      I've included a video below to show the simple technique of paper weaving, for those of you who may not have attempted to teach it before. In this video, the technique demonstrates weaving done with strips only. This makes the craft a bit more difficult. Perhaps students of 4th grade classrooms could complete it best.

When making a woven mat as part of a kids' art project, a large piece of cardboard is needed as the background. Make a woven mat with tips from an art teacher in this free video on art for kids.

Expert: Pauline Stannard
Bio: Pauline Stannard has over 20 years of teaching experience and runs art workshops for children.
Filmmaker: Kathy Stannard 

Weaving Projects During the Holidays:

• Weave a Giant Shamrock to Hang in The Classroom 
• Weaving a giant heart for Valentine's Day
• Weave an Easter Basket Scene

 

Draw a Scarecrow Emphasizing The Use of Pattern(s)

      This drawing lesson, for 3rd through 5th grade, requires students to first draw with black ink markers on white paper. The challenge is to draw many patterned spaces within the context of a larger theme. I have selected a scarecrow in a corn field theme for my teacher's sample above. After students have finished drawing their scarecrows, they may then color these in with a combined selection of metallic and regular ink pens.

More Scarecrow Art Projects:

• Preschool paper plate scarecrows
• Kindergarten scarecrows made with templates
• 1rst Grader Geometric Shape Scarecrows
• 1rst Grade Scarecrow Portrait Collages
• Under The Harvest Moon: scarecrows by first graders
• 2nd Grade Scarecrows: based on the book "Little Scarecrow Boy" by Margaret Wise Brown.
• 3rd Grade Scarecrows: fabric collage techniques

Harvester Picture Puzzle

Find the harvester's hired man and the harvester's grandchild.

The Karo Corn Maiden Coloring Sheet

Color the Karo corn maiden for the Autumn harvest.

Find The Acorns

How many nuts has this wise squirrel put away for winter? Take your pencil and see if you can find the nuts in the maze of lines above. You will find that the nuts are represented by ovals. See how many you can find. One of the ovals is shown with a heavy outline as a start.