Create your own Thanksgiving stick puppets with this pie and turkey template. The template (found below) is a free, downloadable PDF for your personal use. Are you team pie or team turkey? I am definitely team pie! Make both and ask your family and friends to vote for their favorite Thanksgiving stick puppet. Find more fall crafts to make together: https://imaginationsrunningwild.com/fall-crafts/
Print the free Thanksgiving stick puppets template. Cardstock works best, but regular copy works too. Color your pie (I chose a pumpkin pie) and your turkey. Then cut around the dotted circles. Grab your two craft sticks and with glue or tape one stick to the back of each picture.
For the “whipped cream,” I added a cotton ball to the pie. I gently pulled on the cotton ball to make it look fluffier before gluing it on. Now your pie is complete! Let it dry before playing with your stick puppets.
Looking for a quick and easy STEM activity to add to your fall/autumn lesson plans? Try this falling leaf STEM craft! This activity is easy to throw together, but a great way to teach about gravity (Science), and inline planes (Engineering).
Print, color, and cut out the leaf picture template, or cut out a leaf shape of your own.
Cut off a 1-inch piece of your straw and tape it to center of the back side of your leaf.
Next, cut a 3-foot piece of curling ribbon or string. Pull the ribbon through the straw.
Now to make your leaf fall, have your child hold one end of the ribbon and you hold the other end. Watch as the leaf “falls” when it slides down the ribbon. Experiment with holding the ribbon up at varying heights and try standing closer and then further apart to see if the leaf falls faster or slower.
This moveable secret hiding squirrel craft is easy and fun to make! I think your preschooler will love this one. It’s an adorable fall craft with a fun twist on the squirrel hiding acorns — this time the acorn is hiding the squirrel!
After you print the template, color the squirrel and the acorn. Be creative! Don’t forget to give your squirrel and cute little face.
Cut out the acorn and the squirrel. Once you have your acorn cut out, cut along the dotted zigzag line, turning your acorn into two pieces.
Stick the brad through the dark circle (on the left side) of the top acorn piece. Then stick the same brad through the dark circle of the bottom acorn piece. Close the brad. Now you have created a hinge that allows your acorn to open and close.
It’s time to attach the squirrel! Add glue to the front side of the squirrel’s body and then stick it onto the backside of the bottom acorn piece. Make sure to leave the squirrel’s head sticking up so that you will see it when you open the acorn. Let your project dry before having lots of fun opening and closing your acorn to reveal the secret hiding squirrel.
Read some squirrel stories together to go with your craft. Here is a list of 10 adorable squirrel stories for preschoolers. Be on the lookout for acorns in these books!
It’s harvest time! Here is a cute farmer paper bag puppet craft that you and your preschooler can make together. I love paper bag puppets because they are easy to make and allow for creative play.
Color your farmer template. The template has three pieces: 1 head, 1 body, and a chicken.
Grown ups can cut out the three pieces.
Now it’s time to glue! The side of the bag with the flap is the front. Glue the body onto the main part of the bag. Glue sticks work best because they don’t bleed through the paper. The farmer’s head will go on the flap of the bag so when you stick your hand in the paper bag, you can move the flap and make it look like the farmer is “talking.” Glue the head on to the flap carefully, making sure that you don’t accidently glue it onto the main part of the bag.
Let your project dry before playing with your farmer paper bag puppet. Once dry, show your farmer some of your favorite foods! Do you think your farmer grows any of your favorites on their farm?
More Farm Fun!
Pair this craft with some awesome vegetables stories to get your kid excited about vegetables. This is a great opportunity to talk about where food comes from.
Love tractors? Here 8 preschool-level tractor stories. What’s a farm without a tractor!
Here are some cute autumn-themed finger and action rhymes for preschoolers. Get ready for falling autumn leaves, pumpkins, and flying bats! Includes fun rhymes to get those fingers wiggling with “Five Little Leaves” and “Five Little Pumpkins” and action rhymes to help with coordination.
Rhymes
–FIVE LITTLE LEAVES (Finger Rhyme)–
Five little leavesfalling from a tree. (hold up 5 fingers)
The first one says,“You can’t catch me!” (wiggle thumb)
The second one says,“There’s a chill in the air!” (wiggle pointer finger)
The third one says,“But we don’t care!” (wiggle middle finger)
The fourth one says“Hello” to the ground. (wiggle ring finger)
The fifth one says,“We make a crunching sound!” (wiggle pinky)
Whoosh goes the wind,blowing all around. (wave hand around)
And the five little leaves landsafe and sound. (hand open flat, palm facing up)
(c) Imaginations Running Wild
–FIVE LITTLE PUMPKINS (Finger Rhyme)–
Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate. (hold up 5 fingers) The first one said “Oh my it’s getting late.” (wiggle thumb) The second one said “There are witches in the air!” (wiggle pointer finger) The third one said “But we don’t care!” (wiggle middle finger) The fourth one said “Let’s run and run and run!” (wiggle ring finger) The fifth one said “I’m ready for some fun.” (wiggle pinky) Ooooooooooooo went the wind and out went the light (wave hand around) And the five little pumpkins rolled out of sight. (roll hands in fist over fist motion)
–PUMPKIN, PUMPKIN–
Pumpkin, pumpkin Sat on a wall (hold one arm straight in front of you to be the wall then place a fist on top of wall) Pumpkin, pumpkin tip and fall
(rock fist back and forth and fall off “wall”)
Pumpkin, pumpkin
roll down the street
(hand over hand rolling motion)
Pumpkin, pumpkin
don’t squish my feet!
(throw arms up in the air, and shout)
–PUMPKIN CHANT (clap your hands in time with the chant)–
Pumpkin, pumpkin, pumpkin bread
Pumpkin, pumpkin, pumpkin head
Pumpkin, pumpkin, pumpkin pie
Pumpkin, pumpkin, pumpkin eye
Pumpkin, pumpkin, pumpkin stew
Pumpkin, pumpkin, pumpkin BOO!
(c) Jane Willis Johnston
SONGS
-BATS ARE FLYING-
(tune of Are You Sleeping?)
Bats are flying, bats are flying In the sky, in the sky A-swooping and a-soaring A-swooping and a-soaring Way up high, way up high
(c) Imaginations Running Wild
-If You Are You Know It Fall Leaves Edition-
Verse 1:
If you’re happy and you know it, catch the leaves. (clap hands)
If you’re happy and you know it, catch the leaves. (clap hands)
If you’re happy and you know it, then your face will surely show it. (point to smile)
If you’re happy and you know it, catch the leaves. (clap hands)
Verse 2:
If you’re happy and you know it, crunch the leaves. (stomp feet)
If you’re happy and you know it, crunch the leaves. (stomp feet)
If you’re happy and you know it, then your face will surely show it. (point to smile)
If you’re happy and you know it, crunch the leaves. (stomp feet)
Verse 3:
If you’re happy and you know it, sweep the leaves. (make sweeping motion)
If you’re happy and you know it, sweep the leaves. (make sweeping motion)
If you’re happy and you know it, then your face will surely show it.(point to smile)
If you’re happy and you know it, sweep the leaves. (make sweeping motion)
Verse 4:
If you’re happy and you know it, do all 3. (clap, stomp, sweep)
If you’re happy and you know it, do all 3. (clap, stomp, sweep)
If you’re happy and you know it, then your face will surely show it.(point to smile)
If you’re happy and you know it, do all 3. (clap, stomp, sweep)
Who doesn’t love playing with puppets? Puppet crafts are so much fun for children to make and to play with! I love when we are able to make a scene on a paper plate for stick puppet to explore. Make this cute turkey stick puppet craft with your little one and enjoy watching your puppet explore the straw and fall leaves in this scene. This interactive craft is tons of fun and lends itself well to imaginative play.
Print off the turkey scene stick puppet craft template (free PDF download). Color the turkey, rolled up straw bales, haystack, and fall leaves. After coloring, cut out your pictures. I try to keep things simple by cutting a border around the pictures rather than exactly along the lines. Once you glue them onto a white paper plate, you really can’t see the white borders around the pictures anyway.
Have an adult use a box cutter to cut a slit along the smooth center of the plate. The slit in the example is a little less than halfway up the plate. Before slicing, make sure that the craft stick will be able to stick up through the proposed slit and move around. The slit should go all the way along the smooth part of the plate, stopping before both ridged outer edges.
Now that you have colored all of your pictures, glue them onto your plate. Check to make sure that all of the pictures are glued down tight so that your turkey stick puppet doesn’t get stuck under any edges that may be sticking up.
Glue your turkey to end of a craft stick and let’s play! Slip your puppet through the slit and move your puppet around so that your turkey can play in the straw.
This owl headband craft is a perfect way to have some crafting fun together and get in the autumn spirit. I love how cute these headbands turn out! This fun activity is great for preschoolers, kindergarten, and early elementary aged children. The free craft template includes the adorable owl and two bands for making the headband.
Print out the free owl headband template and color the owl. We colored the bands too!
Cut out all of your pieces.
Glue or tape the bands to the sides of the owl. If using glue, let your project dry. Then wrap the bands around your child’s head and then glue or tape the bands together at the back of your child’s head (forming a circle).
Add some autumn-themed math fun into your preschooler’s learning with this harvest graphing STEM activity! What is harvest graphing? Harvest graphing is recording how many times a picture shows up each time you the roll the di on the bar graph included in this set. The purpose of this activity is to introduce young learners to the concepts of probability, recording answers, and counting. Once you have completed your graph, count how many times you rolled each food.
Start by printing this free template. The harvest graphing template includes the di, colored tiles, and graphing chart. I used regular printer paper; however, if you use cardstock, then your di will be much sturdier.
Begin by cutting out the di. Once fully cut out, gently fold the tabs inward. Then begin to fold your squares into a cube shape. Add some glue to the tabs and glue them onto the underside of the squares as you form your cube. The very last tab is hard to glue and might require tape. Once your cube is formed, set it aside to dry.
Cut out all of the colored tiles. You will have 8 of each color–red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. Each color corresponds with one of the harvested foods. Here’s the color scheme: tomato=red, pumpkin=orange, corn=yellow, peas=green, grapes=blue, and eggplant=purple.
Let’s Graph!
Now it is time to begin harvest graphing. Ask you child to gently roll the di. Which food picture is on top? Is it a red tomato? Take a tile of the same color and set it on the graph above the corresponding-colored harvested food picture. Keep rolling the di and setting tiles in the correct columns until you reach the top of the column.
The best part is you can use this activity over and over again since there is no glue involved. Try this harvest graphing STEM activity again and see which fruit or vegetable makes it to the top this time!
Why STEM?
STEM stands for science, technology, engineering, and math. It is important to introduce these concepts to preschoolers in a fun way so that as they get older, they are excited about STEM subjects. What are preschoolers learning in this activity? Preschoolers are learning their colors (science)! They have to identify the color on the di, find the same color on the chart, and then correctly add the same color tile to the graph. Preschoolers are learning how to graph, an important math concept! Add some extra math into this activity by counting how many of each color tile is on your graph and how many tiles your have altogether. Preschoolers are also learning about engineering as they help build the di!
More STEM Activities
If your child enjoyed this graphing activity, I made a free blank di template so you can customize it with your own pictures. You can add computer images, stickers, or draw whatever you want on the dice and graph for your child to practice more graphing skills.
Are you ready for a fun, interactive Halloween craft? Check out this super cute hidden cat pumpkin craft! I love that the pumpkin opens, revealing the hidden cat. It was pretty easy to make and turned out great! I think your preschooler will love this one.
After you print the template, color the pumpkin and the cat. Be creative! We added a jack-o-lantern face to our pumpkin.
Cut out the cat and the pumpkin. Once you have your pumpkin cut out, cut along the dotted zigzag line, making your pumpkin into two pieces.
Stick the brad through the dark circle (on the left side) of the top pumpkin piece. Then stick the same brad through the dark circle of the bottom pumpkin piece. Close the brad. Now you have created a hinge that allows your pumpkin to open and close.
It’s time to attach the cat! Add glue to the front side of the cat’s body and then stick it onto the backside of the bottom pumpkin piece. Make sure to leave the cat’s head sticking up so that you will see it when you open the pumpkin. Let your project dry before having lots of fun opening and closing your pumpkin.
I was looking at Halloween images on Canva and I came across these cute pictures of children dressed up for Halloween (and the cat too!). They were too adorable to ignore so I turned them into a Halloween stick puppets craft! Stick puppets are one of my go-to kids’ crafts. They lend themselves well to imaginative play. I love seeing children act out adventures with the there stick puppets! Are you ready to make your own stick puppets?
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More Crafts:
Do you like puppets? My son and I think puppets are a lot of fun! We’ve made quite a few together. Check out some more of our puppet ideas:
