put your hands together for fall

 Ok, corny title, I know. But this is hands down the easiest hands-on craft and it turned out handsomely.

W's tree. I love how he has the leaves at each finger.

Hands-on Fall

• Brown and blue construction paper
• Scissors
• Pencil
• Glue stick
• Foam leaf stickers (DollareTree find)

Trace your hand on brown construction paper then cut out and glue to blue construction paper. (Older kids can do this all by themselves!) This is your tree. Then let the kids go to town with the stickers making a fall tree! Quick, cheap, easy, and pain free for everyone involved!

E chose to show the leaves were all falling off the tree and blowing away in the wind. She also drew the wind with white crayon all over her tree and sky. Very creative!

Apples and Pumpkins

Apple Garland

 Can I take a minute to say how much I love the DollarTree? Seriously, they have tons of craft stuff for cheap. If I swore, I would swear by this store! And don't just frequent one store, stop by different DollarTree locations. Every store carries a little different variety. Oh and the Target dollar section is great too!

For example, I wanted to make an apple garland but didn't have the time to trace and cut out the apples. Browsing in DollarTree, I came across these cute foam apples. PERFECT! I simply punched two holes close together and had W help me string them. He thought it was awesome!

And then there is the whole "it's halloween/fall and I must decorate a pumpkin" thing. Sharp objects and large produce items do not mix well with small children. So, I came up with my own little alternative. Here's how we decorated pumpkins.

• Foam pumpkins from the DollarTree
• A variety of shapes cut from black construction paper
• Glue sticks
• Squares of construction paper

The pumpkins actually had faces printed on one side so I just glued that side to the construction paper and no one ever knew!  I made a sample and then let the kids do the rest. I loved the results! Can you find the pumpkin with the mustache?
Both E and W were super into this craft. W is 3 and wanted to do all the pumpkins!

The sample

Pumpkin heads