Crafting is not only a great way to entertain kids, but crafts also help children develop their fine motor skills as well. When a child is working to do two things at once – such as holding a paper and cutting it or using tweezers to pick up objects – they are working on problem-solving skills as well as those important motor skills. In addition, exposing children to various situations that involve multiple senses help them to learn as well. We’re giving a fun fall twist to some of our favorite sensory crafts to get little fingers working!

Bubble Paper

This fun craft lets your kids bring bubble blowing inside the house!

• In a shallow, wide baking dish, fill about halfway with water.
• Add in several squirts of dish soap.
• Add in liquid food coloring to your desired shade and hue. Yellow, orange, and red are great fall colors.
• Using a straw, have your kids blow into the water making big mountains of bubbles all across the dish! Add more soap if bubbles aren’t big.
• Gently place a sheet of paper across the top of the dish, letting the bubbles leave colored blobs on the paper.
• Let dry. Enjoy as is, use as the background of a picture (think a fall day and draw a tree with leaves falling!), or even as wrapping paper for gifts.

Sensory Tub

This is a great sensory crafts that allows for playing over and over again! Great for letting little hands get “messy” and also sensory stimulation. This works great with a dish tub, or even a short storage bin with a lid to store in between playtime.

• Fill the tub with 2-3 inches of dry rice. Remove the rice and place in a plastic bag and add food coloring of your choice. Orange, red, yellow, brown (or a mixture of each! Be sure to separate one bag per color when mixing) are fun fall colors. Shake the bag until all of the rice is colored. Spread rice on a baking sheet to dry.
• Put dry, colored rice back into the tub. Add in fall-themed things like leaves (fake or real), small toys, sticks, small pumpkins, pine cones – anything that reminds you of fall.
• Let little hands get busy discovering! Use hands or small tools like a shovel to discover hidden fall treasure.

Shadow “Painting”

This is a perfect project for sunny days! Grab some colorful construction paper (darker colors work best) and any toy or object with a well-defined shape; leaves, toy dinosaurs, dolls, etc.

Lay the paper flat in an area where it will get sun for 3-5 hours. Lay your objects on the paper and let them sit. After several hours in the sun, the darker “shadow” of the object will be left on the sun bleached paper! Create scenes on the paper or patterns too.

Want More Craft Ideas?

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