I love autumn process art for toddlers and today I’m sharing an autumn (or fall) process art activity that’s perfect for right now. It’s just one of many fantastic autumn activities for preschool.
If you’re not familiar with process art then let me start by telling you a little about it. Process art is great for toddlers as the process is as important, if not more so than the end result. You provide them with the materials and let them create whatever they want to.
As much as I love doing crafts with my two, I find process art much more in line with what young children want to. We do crafts at playgroup and they love the end result but I end up doing more of the craft than her and she would much rather just do what she wants! Can you relate?
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Fall process art activity
You will need
Paper Paint (we use * washable poster paints)
* paintbrushes natural elements such as conkers, acorns, pine cones and leaves
Find more open ended art materials for preschoolers here.
This activity is particularly perfect for autumn as it combines outdoor activity with an indoor one. It also finds a purpose for all those “autumn treasures” that kids love to collect.
How many walks have you come back from with pockets full of acorns, conkers and pine cones? I’m usually still finding them in my coat pockets in March.
To start the activity, go on a short walk with your toddler to collect some natural elements like leaves, conkers and pine cones.
Once you have collected your natural elements and you are back home. It’s really easy to set up an invitation to create for your toddler.
I put some paper on a tray (this is a tip I learnt a while back, it helps contain the mess a little), added a paintbrush and some red and yellow paint (we had a couple of these little squeezy bottles left over so we used them up and my toddler loved drizzling the paint around the paper) as well as a selection of the natural elements you have collected.
I just used red and yellow as they are perfect autumnal colours and it also creates an opportunity to explore colour mixing. You could use any colours you wanted though or make it part of the process and let your toddler choose colours. Then let your toddler do what they want to do.
For the natural elements I added, Conkers, leaves and pine cones. My little girl ignored the pine cone and didn’t really use the conkers that much. She loves painting the leaves as well as just simply painting with her paintbrush.
When she started to lose interest, I cut an apple that was past its best in half and showed her how to paint it and do apple stamp painting which extended the activity for a little longer.
That’s how simple this process art activity is and I’m sure it’s going to be very popular with your child. What kind of fallen nature will your child be drawn to?
Can you talk about autumn colours, nature and the changes we are seeing with your child? You could also talk about the colours and textures that they are seeing and feeling.
Find more ways to create Easy nature art here.
Where to next?
Find loads of ideas for Autumn leaves activities for toddlers here. Find crafts, activities and sensory play.
Download 10 free autumn pictures to colour for children here. The perfect autumn colouring pages.
We love nature crafts, if you do too, head to my post on 30 things to do with sticks.
Find more ideas for things to collect on a nature walk here.
Find a selection of autumn activities for toddlers here.
Find a selection of gorgeous Autumn books for toddlers here.
For a selection of autumn books that they may enjoy head to my post on autumn children’s books.
Don’t forget to see my September activities for kids page for even more ideas for seasonal fun with kids.
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Love this idea for missing up the weekends with Henry. We live next to a woods, so will get collecting some bits tomorrow and make an afternoon of it. Love the colours in the picture x
I hope you both have great fun. I’m sure you will.
This looks like so much fun! It’s an excellent activity for them to do now that the weather is getting colder and wetter and they will be staying indoors more.
Exactly my thoughts too.
I think I need to try this out. My kids will definitely do better being able to do their own thing.
I’m sure they will love it.
My daughter would love this craft idea.
I hope she does if you give it a try
Fab! I help to run the crafts section at our local playgroup so will definitely be doing this – thank you! I’ll try to take some pics to share with you on Instagram! ?
I love it, creativity is so important for little ones. Perfect activity for autumn.
She looks like she is having so much fun. I love art and I like to just have fun with paint. After you paint the leaves, you can save them for a little while before they crumble and dry up.
Those are perfect autumn colours, looks like so much fun! I’m sure my eight year old would love this. He loves anything which requires making a mess 🙂
excellent overview thank you – it looks like she had a lovely time – and you’re right it’s about the enjoyment/process – have you painted over leaves so there’s a blank space on the paper? good for colouring in later when the paint has dried. love Becinmonton 🙂
I love autumn so this would be a great craft x
Aw what a great activity for the smaller kids to do. My boy used to love process art, he still loves collecting autumn treasures and crafting with them.
Thanks for the post. Ive never heard of the term before, but Im a childminder and believe that a child should do all the art themselves as they learn so much.
This is a really lovely idea, I totally agree when you try to force little ones you end up doing all the work, love the idea of letting them explore and have fun in their own way.
Oh I love this! What a fab autumn craft! looks like a lot of fun!