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Get ready to sprinkle a dash of creative fun into your little one’s day with our straw painted fall tree craft! This playful activity marries the vibrant hues of fall with the sheer joy of crafting. It’s all about swirls of reds, oranges, and yellows coming alive through the magic of straw painting, offering your child a canvas to express their inner artist while celebrating the autumn season in style. Let’s set those little hands painting and see the colors of imagination take shape!

WILL YOU MAKE THIS STRAW PAINTED FALL TREE CRAFT WITH YOUR CHILD? PIN IT FOR LATER!

Materials Needed

Straws
Fall colored paints (think reds, oranges, yellows, and browns)
A sheet of white paper
Our free tree printable template
Scissors

Step-by-step Guide

Preparation is Key: Start by printing our free tree printable template. This will serve as the beautiful canvas for your child’s masterpiece.

Create Your Magical Brush: Grab a straw and, using the scissors, cut one end of it into four equal parts. Gently bend these parts backward to create a star-like shape. Voila, your magical brush is ready! Repeat this with as many straws as you have paint colors. (You can always use a single straw and mix the colors for a whirlpool of autumn hues!)

Dive into the Colors: It’s time to summon the autumn palette! Pour your fall paints into shallow dishes. Dip the star-shaped end of your straw into a paint color of your choice.

Let’s Paint: Bring the dipped straw to your paper where the tree template awaits. Press the straw onto the branches of the tree to create vibrant leaves. Feel free to mix and match colors, giving your tree a full, rich canopy of fall foliage.

Tips for a Masterpiece

Mix it Up: Encourage your kiddo to mix colors on the paper, creating new shades and giving a dynamic look to the tree.
Breath of Fresh Air: To create a blowing leaves effect, you can have the child blow into the straw, casting paint across the paper for a whimsical touch.
Test Run: Before starting on the main sheet, have a test run on a scrap paper to get the hang of the straw paintbrush.

Benefits of Crafting with Kids

Crafting isn’t just a fun activity; it’s a veritable treasure trove of learning experiences:

Motor Skills: Handling the straw and learning to paint with it enhances fine motor skills.
Creativity Unleashed: This activity nurtures creativity as children explore different color combinations and painting techniques.
Science Meets Art: Dive into a little science by discussing the changes in tree colors during the fall season, making the craft session educational too!
Bonding Time: Crafting together creates a special bonding time, filled with laughter, learning, and the joy of creating something beautiful.

There you have it, a festival of fall colors right in your home! We bet your little artist will be proud of their straw painted fall tree craft, a vivid representation of the golden season, crafted with love, creativity, and yes, a straw! So let’s dip, dab, and dazzle as we welcome fall with open arms and painted straws! Happy crafting!

Age Suitability

This craft is good for toddlers aged children 3 years old and up with adult assistance.

Mess Level

The mess level for this craft is medium.

Difficulty to Create

Low.

Skills Developed

Language development, shape recognition, color recognition, hand-eye coordination, fine motor skills, imaginative play, creativity.

Toddler and Preschooler Curriculums, Books & TV Show!

Play2Learn Toddler & Preschool Programs for Curious Toddlers

There is no limit to your toddler’s energy and curiosity. That energy and curiosity although a joy can be challenging at times. Their interest in just about everything around them is what makes them great learners. One and two year olds can soak up so much just from their senses!

But as a teacher or parent that thirst for learning can be exhausting. That is why I created this toddler and preschooler program. To help you get the most out of this time with your curious toddler without having to come up with creative ways to play and interact with them.

Play2Learn for Toddlers includes 20 Units for toddlers. Each 2-week toddler unit has 20 super easy to set up and engaging activities for toddlers 18 months to 3 years.

Play2Learn Preschool which includes 20 Units for preschoolers. Each 2-week preschoolers unit has 20 unique and easy to set up and engaging activities for preschoolers 3 years to 5 years. That’s over 800 learning activities for your toddler and preschooler at your fingertips! So many ideas you and your child will never be bored again!

These toddler and preschool lesson plans and activities will definitely keep you and your toddler and preschooler busy playing and learning!

Click here for more information: Play2Learn

Designed for toddlers 18 months and up.

Book: Exciting Sensory Bins for Curious Kids

Did you know I wrote a book of sensory bins? Click here for more information Exciting Sensory Bin for Curious Kids. Or grab your copy at Amazon.

Boring afternoons are made exciting with awesome animal-based bins, like Salty Shark Bay or Yarn Farm. Pretend play bins like Birthday Cake Sensory Play or Bubble Tea Party encourage creativity and imagination. And your kids will have so much fun they won’t even know they’re getting smarter with STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math) activities like Sink or Float Soup, Magnetic Letter Hunt or Ice Cream Scoop and Count.

Designed for toddlers 18 months and up.

Book: Super STEAM Activity Book for Kids

Learning all about science, technology, engineering, art, and math sets kids up for scholastic success―and it can be so much fun! Watch kids enjoy building STEAM skills as they color friendly fish, help water find its way to tree roots, solve math problems with mazes, and more.

Find out more and grab your copy here.

Designed for preschoolers 3 years old and up.

Book: Big Book of Riddles for Kids

Riddle me this: What’s an exciting way to practice critical thinking while having a blast? The Big Riddle Book for Kids, of course! From hilarious puns to tough brain teasers, kids can build problem-solving skills with hundreds of riddles tha. t show them how to think outside the box.

350 riddles for kids—Have hours of fun with riddles, puns and jokes, and math and logic puzzles that’ll get their wheels turning!
Level up their skills—Riddles get trickier as kids progress through the book, challenging them as they get better at solving puzzles!
Double-check their work—Kids can check their answers in the back of the book with a handy answer key.

Help children expand their minds while having fun with this puzzle book for kids!

Designed for kids ages 6 years old and up.

TV Show: Curious Crafting

I’m so excited to share my crafting TV show Curious Crafting which launched in July 2022 on TVOkids and TVOkids YouTube! Season 2 aired in August 2023! My show was also nominated in 2023 for Best Live Action Preschool Series by the Youth Media Alliance Awards of Excellence.

Curious Crafting Season 1 is also now airing in Australia on ABC! Watch it here!

Set in the ultimate crafting space, Curious Crafting is a short form pre-school age series about the joy of making crafts. I lead a rotating cast of adorable little preschoolers (including my own) making magic out of common household objects.

In each episode we transform recycled items into magical crafts like a milk carton school bus, paper bag puppet or cotton pad turtle. The crafters learn and laugh their way through each activity while demonstrating what their young imaginations can create.

Curious Crafting shares the adventure and joy of making art with takeaway lessons for creating crafts at home.

This show designed for toddlers and preschoolers 2.5 years old and up.

The Best Sensory Play Kits for Kids

Play is at the core of learning during the early years and it can take many forms. One of the most important of these is sensory play because it engages all of a child’s senses (taste, touch, smell, sight and hearing) and has a enoumous positive impact on brain development.

Our Sensory Play Kits are some fun and easy ways to keep your child engaged while at the same time using sensory play to nurture their mind!

Shop our ready made play kits here.