This Fall Tree Handprint Craft its easy for toddlers and preschoolers to make using just textured paper and tissue paper. Everyone loves a handprint craft, right?!
I love crafting with my daycare kids in the fall. There are so many colours and textures for young children to learn about and explore.
The trees in our backyard are starting to change colour now, so fall leaf crafts and fall tree crafts are very popular with my toddlers and preschoolers at the moment.
With today’s fall tree handprint craft, we’re creating trees that the kids can decorate with vibrant tissue paper leaves, and for the tree trunks, we’re using textured, patterned wall paper samples that resemble tree trunk bark.
Squares of tissue paper make great fall leaves when you don’t want to cut out leaf shapes for your preschool Fall crafts. No need to fuss with fancy shapes when kids can just crumple a piece of tissue paper instead.
To make our tree trunks, instead of just cutting out paper into rectangular strips for the trunks and branches, I traced the kids’ hands. The kids love having their hands traced, and parents always love a handprint craft because it makes such an adorable keepsake.
Free wall paper samples and tissue paper are two of my favourite inexpensive crafting materials!
I save all of the tissue paper that comes with birthday gifts and whatnot so we always have a large, colourful supply on hand.
As for the wallpaper samples, I get those from the local paint and wallpaper store. They’re always happy to give away their expired sample books instead of throwing them in the trash.
Making these fall handprint trees will allow toddlers and preschoolers to explore textures and colours, and crumpling the tissue paper helps to develop hand muscles and fine-motor skills.
How to Make our Handprint Fall Tree Craft
Supplies:
- Textured wall paper samples
- Coloured tissue paper cut into squares
- Glue
- scissors
- Piece of sturdy white paper (card stock or thin cardboard)
Making our handprint trees:
To begin, I had the kids look through our wallpaper books to look for the best paper to use for our tree trunks. Some of the wallpaper samples looked just like wood, so those were perfect.
Then we chose the colours of tissue paper we wanted for our leaves. The children decided that red, orange, yellow, purple and teal would make the best fall leaves.
Next, I traced the kids’ hands and arms, up to the elbow, on the back of the wallpaper samples, and cut them out. Older preschoolers will be able to do the tracing and cutting themselves, but younger children may need you to do this step for them.
Then, the hooligans glued their hand trees onto a piece of thin white cardboard.
Time to decorate our trees with colourful fall leaves.
I cut the tissue paper into 3×3 squares and the children crumpled them up and glued them all over their trees. The glued some pieces in random places on their cardboard to look like falling leaves.
Tissue paper is such a wonderful material for young children to craft with. Because it’s soft and delicate, it it feels lovely to the touch, and the kids love how it rustles when they crumple it up.
Separating the pieces of tissue paper and crumpling it up gives kids a chance to strengthen their hand muscles and fine-motor skills.
This easy craft is perfect for daycare or preschool, and such a lovely way for kids to learn about and celebrate Fall.
And now we have several adorable and colourful pieces of fall art to display in our play room this season.
Check out this collection of 19 Adorable Handprint Crafts for Fall.
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Jackie is a mom, wife, home daycare provider, and the creative spirit behind Happy Hooligans. She specializes in kids’ crafts and activities, easy recipes, and parenting. She began blogging in 2011, and today, Happy Hooligans inspires more than 2 million parents, caregivers and Early Years Professionals all over the globe.
