Make a Paper Bowl

The Chinese invented paper over 4000 years ago. For our unit on ancient China, we made our own paper bowls in the classroom last week. The main things you need are construction paper, newsprint, water, a blender, and a kitchen sieve. For step-by-step instructions with lots of photos, check out my How to Make a Paper Bowl page.

Fall Sculptures for Fine Motor Skills

As we know, older children groan at fine motor activities that would thrill younger children. After all, what ten-year-old wants to do scissors work or practice penmanship? But give a child a bagful of chestnuts, acorns, and pine cones along with a glue gun and a few other implements, and you’ve got an engrossed artist who will lose track of time in the midst of fine motor work.

Pine Cone Triceratops

Do you want to try it? Here’s what to do.


1. Gather your materials. (Involve the children in collecting the materials from outdoors if possible.)

• chestnuts, acorns, pine cones, sticks, leaves (anything you can find outside in the fall)
• glue gun and refills
• liquid white out
• Fine tipped markers
• toothpicks

2. Let the children have at it!

Some children will benefit from having pre-made samples or photos from which to draw inspiration. If you're wondering what the white out and fine-tipped marker are for, check out the eyeballs on the birds pictured here.

Acorn Birds' Nest

Here is some more inspiration from around the web for making sculptures with pine cones, acorns, and such.

Acorn Animals from Red Ted Art’s blog
Mini-World from Streamers and Acorns from Se7en
Acorn and Pine Cone Critters from Menschenskind
Acorn Animals and Pine Cone Animals (more photos) from yours truly at MakeLearningFun.info

Question: Do you have a favorite seasonal activity for fine motor skills? Please share in the comments.

Acorn Animals

A few weeks ago, I posted about the pine cone animals that my kids had made. A post about acorn animals at Red Ted Art's Blog reminded me that my kids had made some of those too. Here are some bird's nest scenes that they made mainly from acorns.

All you need are various kinds of acorns, pine cones, sticks, something flat for the base, and a glue gun to stick it all together. The eggs are actually dried beans. The eyes are made with a drop of white out and a sharpie.

 The book at left is full of great craft ideas. You can probably find it at the library,  but if not, click through to check it out on Amazon. You can see the first several pages there.

Question: What are your favorite fall activities? Share in the comments, and feel free to leave a relavent link.

Pine Cone Animals

Pine Cone Triceratops

My kids went to the science museum today and made these great pine cone animal sculptures. What a wonderful way to use found items for art! If you've read my blog before, you know I am interested in fine motor skills activities for older children. Well, holding a glue gun with one hand and attaching all of these little parts with the other is wonderful exercise for the small muscles of the hand. As with all of the best exercises, I'm sure making these cute pine cone animals didn't feel like exercise at all!

Pine Cone Dogs

Check out the acorn birds' nests the kids made the same day.

Question: What fun crafts do you have in mind for the fall?