5 Minute Crafts To Do With Your Kids This Fall

There is nothing like when the autumn leaves start to turn colors to inspire beautiful and easy crafts for kids this fall! We love to go on a brisk morning leaf hunt and come home to create quick and easy crafts for kids inspired by autumn’s warm color palette. Enjoy the season with these ten 5 minute craft ideas for kids to make this fall!

Childrens leaf rubbing with crayons and decorated with fall leaves; Autumn leaves and tansy surround kids leaf rubbing

1. Leaf Rubbing

This is an easy, mess-free and classic fall leaf art project! Go on a leaf hunt and collect freshly fallen leaves that are a variety of different shapes and sizes. Lay the leaf vein side up and cover with a piece of paper. Hold the paper still and use the side of a crayon, oil pastel, or colored pencil to rub across the leaf, letting its outline and details show up on your paper. Observe how different levels of pressure and coloring tools affect the print.

2. Leaf Animals

Leaves can lead to imaginative creations with this 5 minute craft for kids. Gather an assortment of leaves in different shapes, sizes and colors. Kids can use the different leaves to create their own animal figures. Guide them to think of features they may see on an animal and find leaves to represent those characteristics. For example, a lion can be made with a yellow oval leaf body, four small leaves for legs, a long twisty leaf tail, and pointy orange leaves for its head and mane. They can glue their leaves to a piece of paper and add googly eyes to make them come alive!

Children, applying leaves using glue, scissors, and paint, while doing arts and crafts in school.

dolls from poppy heads and flowers - art from nature

3. Paper Leaf Dolls

This 5 minute craft for kids offers another creative opportunity to use their imaginations this fall! Draw a simple line drawing of a person on a large piece of paper. I used a roll of easel paper and filled it with outlines of princesses, ballerinas, and fairies. Collect leaves while paying close attention to the beautiful texture, color, and shape. Kids can arrange the leaves to make pretty dresses, tutus, and more to outfit and decorate their paper people.

4. Handprint Tree

Kids will love this hands-on handprint tree! Use a brush to paint brown washable tempera paint on the child’s forearm and palm. Press the painted surface onto a piece of paper, leaving the print of a tree trunk (arm) and branches (fingers). Give your child several fall colored washable paints in a shallow tray that they can use to add fingerprint leaves to the trees.

Fingerprints tree. Boy dipping his fingers in colors and stamping on paper. Preschool activities at home. Young artist.

Cute little girl drawing with paint autumn leaves at home

5. Painted Leaf & Branch Decor

Let your kids bring the outdoors in with this home decor project. Collect flat, dry leaves, acorns, and a branch. Paint the leaves and acorns, then add designs using tempera, acrylic, or chalk paint or paint markers. Once dry, the leaves and acorns can be attached onto the branch by the stem with hot glue, floral wire, or string. Place the decorative branch in a vase or hang it from a string on the wall and enjoy your kids’ DIY autumn home decor!

6. Acorn Rolling Process Art

Easy crafts for kids can also be more about the creative process rather than the end result. Collect acorns from outside and dip them into fall paint colors. Place a piece of paper inside a cardboard box and add the paint-coated acorns. Close the top and shake the box, rolling the acorns back and forth, creating a marbled print.

preparations for autumn craft with kids at home. Herbarium from dried leaves.

7. Autumn Leaf Window Art

This mess-free and easy craft for kids of all ages is also a great activity for improving fine motor skills while making a fun sun catcher decoration. Tear or cut fall colored tissue paper into one inch pieces. Place a piece of clear contact paper sticky side up on a flat surface. Press the tissue paper pieces to the sticky paper. Once the paper is (mostly) covered with tissue paper, add another layer of contact paper on top, sticky side down. Draw or trace a leaf shape onto the top of the contact paper and cut it out. Tape or add a string to hang your leaf in the window and watch the pretty light shine through!

8. Leaf Prints

Here’s another easy craft idea for kids to use their fall leaf collection! Using freshly fallen leaves, brush a thin layer of paint on the bottom, veined side, of the leaf. Press the painted side onto a plain piece of paper to make a leaf print. Press evenly or use a rolling pin to capture all the leaf’s details.

Kids pick colorful autumn leaves for school art.

The child cuts out autumn leaves with a candle and watercolors on wooden background. Crafts from paper for children. Children's art project.

9. Autumn Leaf Window Art

My kids are always a little disappointed when we collect a beautifully vibrant leaf collection that fades after a few days. Here are a few craft ideas for kids that will let them keep their collection preserved for a longer amount of time!

The easiest and most basic leaf preservation method is to use a heavy book. Simply put your leaves between two sheets of newspaper or parchment paper and place them between the pages of a heavy book. Let dry for 1-2 weeks.
A quicker and longer lasting method is to iron the leaf in wax paper with an adult’s help. Sandwich a leaf between two inward facing pieces of wax paper. Cover the wax paper with a thin towel and press with an iron on medium-high heat until paper becomes transparent. You can either open the hot wax paper and quickly and carefully peel the leaf away from the paper or let it cool and cut around the wax paper around the leaf.

10. DIY Fall Leaf Wreath

A DIY wreath is an easy 5 minute craft for kids that you will love to display all season long! Cut out the center of a paper plate. Keep the outer ring. Kids can glue paper leaves or the pressed leaves from craft #9 around the ring to make a beautiful autumn wreath.