Fall Art Projects

Boots, leaves, colorful trees, and cool crisp air... fall is one of my favorite times of the year!  

With each season comes so many ideas of fun hands-on art projects!  In our school, first graders do not go to an "art special".  Therefore, we work hard to incorporate different activities using art supplies and learning some of the different art concepts.  We use fall-themed art projects to teach students about colors and painting.  

With each project we start out by doing a read-aloud.  We then do the art project, and if there is time, we like to have the students write about their project!  

The first one is a leaf project.  We start out by reading Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf.  

If you can't get your hands on this book, there is a read-aloud available on Youtube here.

Then we make leaves! First I print out different leaf templates from Google images and cut squares of red, yellow, and orange tissue paper.  

All the students need to do is rip the tissue paper apart, glue it on the back of the leaf template, turn it over and cut it out.  I made time-lapse a video to show my students how to do this.

The students can also do a writing piece to describe their leaf and the colors they used.  I like to hang the fall leaves on my window!

We also use fall art projects to introduce paint in the first grade classroom.  For this project, start out by reading any fall story!  Here are some suggestions:

Then the students get a paper with a leaf-less tree.  I also found this image on Google.

I only give the students red, yellow, orange, and brown paint.  I encourage them to add leaves (on the tree or on the ground), pumpkins, scarecrows, birds, a sky, and anything else they might see in the fall!  Then they just paint. :)  Here are some of the beautiful paintings from one of the first grade classes.

Students will then write about their picture and they will be hung in the hall. 

Another fun art project was inspired by a larger version I saw on a friend's front porch.  My friend took seven large pieces of wood and nailed them together with one slanted across the top.  The slanted wood and above became the hat of a scarecrow/snowman and the bottom became the face.  We decided to read a scarecrow story and create the scarecrow/snowman using popsicle sticks!

Below is the story we read.  I try to read a mix of fiction and nonfiction books during these units.  

We then spend one day creating our scarecrow.  I let the students paint while I used the hot glue to stick on the eyes and hair.  Because of the paint and hot glue, we let the scarecrow sit out to dry overnight.  The next day we paint the snowman on the back for winter!

The students really enjoy making these crafts and it is always fun to see how all the different scarecrows/snowmen turn out!  The greatest thing about all of these crafts is that they are all relatively low cost.  Most of the supplies used were things that I already had laying around somewhere in my classroom.  It is important to give students opportunities to be creative throughout the year.  Sometimes we get caught up in all of the assessments and it's hard to take the time to do fun art activities.  Another great thing about all of these projects is that it can be so easily connected to literature and writing.  

Whether you're a teacher, parent, grandparents, or someone else who works with children; I hope you enjoyed reading this!  Good luck with your fall art activities! :)