12 Easy Fall Crafts for Kids Using Nature & Recycled Materials

Fall is a wonderful time to get creative with materials found in nature. Colorful leaves, pinecones, acorns, and twigs can become art supplies, while cardboard tubes and egg cartons get a second life as woodland creatures and seasonal decorations.

These 12 easy fall crafts for kids and preschoolers make the most of what you already have at home or can gather on a nature walk. From leaf printing and pinecone animals to recycled crafts, they’re simple, inexpensive ways to celebrate autumn and encourage hands-on creativity.

Easy Fall Crafts for Kids and Preschoolers

Under each idea, you’ll see what kids get to do and, for most, what you’ll need. It’s usually paint, glue, scissors, and a few things from around the house. Take a walk, grab what you have, and let them make a mess.

Leaf Print Art

Take the kids on a nature walk to look for leaves. Let them color one with a paint stick, then gently press it onto paper, painted side down. Peel it up slowly to see the print. Each print looks a little different, so let them make as many as they like. Ask if it looks like a fish, a bird, or a silly face.

Pinecone Bird Feeders

Turn a pinecone into a homemade bird feeder using nut butter, seeds, and a little twine. This is one of our favorite ways to combine crafting with nature appreciation. Kids can help spread the nut butter, roll the pinecone in seeds, and choose a spot to hang it outside. Then enjoy watching to see which feathered friends stop by! Follow our easy pinecone bird feeder tutorial for the full instructions.

Easy Fall Tree Craft

Kids can build a tree from leaves and sticks they find outside. Glue a few sticks onto white cardstock, then let them pick their favorite leaves to glue around the tree. They’ll feel how different each leaf is, and they can use one kind or lots of kinds. Let it dry before you display it.

Toilet Paper Roll Owls

Even two-year-olds love sorting through colorful fabric scraps to pick wings for their owls. A grown-up squeezes one end of a toilet paper tube into ears, then kids paint it and glue on the wings, sequins, and buttons. Googly eyes finish it off. All that gluing is great practice for little fingers.

Cardboard Tube Squirrels

If your little one keeps collecting acorns, this squirrel is a good place to put them. Let them paint a cardboard tube orange. Googly eyes and a fluffy pipe cleaner tail go on next. Glue one acorn in its hands, and push some tissue paper inside to hold the rest.

Toilet Paper Roll Leaf Puppets

Colorful fall leaves become playful woodland characters with a little imagination. Kids can turn a red leaf into a fox or use yellow leaves to create a lion’s mane, adding paper details and drawn-on faces. Attach the finished characters to cardboard tubes for imaginative play and storytelling.

Autumn Leaf Collage

Gather colorful leaves and twigs on a nature walk, then arrange them on a large piece of cardboard to create a fall collage. Kids can experiment with different shapes, colors, and textures, adding crayons, oil pastels, or a little glitter glue if they like. This also makes a lovely collaborative art project for a classroom or family.

Pinecone Creatures

Each pinecone becomes a creature with its own name and story. A pom pom, leaf wings, and twig arms go on first, and acorn cap feet help it stand up. Decorate a shoebox with leaves and twigs for their habitat, and make up stories about your new creatures together.

Nature Sensory Bottle

Kids choose what goes in these bottles, so no two look alike. Bring an empty water bottle on your next walk and drop in whatever they pick up, like leaves and pinecones. Ask whether a rock feels rough or smooth as you go. The bottle lasts a few weeks, then you can empty it and fill it again.

Paper Bag Leaf Branches

Not every place gets bright fall leaves, so this craft makes its own out of paper bags. Cut about two dozen leaf shapes from one brown grocery bag, glue them to a branch from the yard, and you have a fall decoration for free. It takes about 30 minutes, and the hot glue is a job for an adult.

Bean Mosaic Art

Filling in all the little spaces is surprisingly relaxing. Kids can scatter dried beans anywhere or make stripes and swirls, and bigger beans work well for outlining the shape. Glue them onto a leaf or pumpkin cut from a cereal box. A bag of 15-bean soup mix is a cheap way to get lots of colors.

Egg Carton Turkeys

Don’t throw away that egg carton yet! Cut out two cups, glue them together, and let the kids paint them for the body. Then add paper feathers, a head, a beak, and googly eyes. It’s surprising how fast they turn into turkeys, and kids can play with them for days. Use washable paint, since acrylic is hard to remove from other surfaces.

One of the best things about fall crafting is that the fun begins before you even sit down to create. Head outside together, collect a few interesting leaves, pinecones, or twigs, and see what your child’s imagination comes up with. Sometimes the simplest materials inspire the most creative projects.