Fall has officially arrived and, for most teachers, the time has come to refresh back-to-school displays and classroom decorations with the vibrant colors and themes of autumn. Here is a cute decorative board that your students will have a blast helping you make!

Fall Leaf Crafts

Armed with several fall leaf templates created from card stock, there are several ways in which you can tackle making fall leaf crafts.

• Use the templates to trace and cut leaves from paper towel or coffee filters. Provide your students with washable markers in fall colors (e.g. yellow, red, orange, green, and brown) and invite them to color the paper towel or coffee filter leaves. Encourage them to explore patterning and color mixing as they design each leaf. When finished, place the leaves on a newspaper covered surface, prepare a spray bottle with clean water, and spritz them with water. Your students will be excited to see that, as the water soaks into the leaves, the colors spread and mingle creating a tie dye effect! Let the leaves dry overnight.
• Trace and cut leaves from watercolor paper. Provide your students with watercolor paint and kids paint brushes, inviting them to paint colorful fall leaves. Set aside overnight to dry.
• On sheets of card stock, use a marker and the fall leave templates as a measuring tool to create several small boxes. Provide your students with old magazines and invite them to cut out swatches of fall colors (reds, yellows, oranges, greens, and browns). With a glue stick or a bottle of Elmer's school glue and a paint brush, instruct your students to collage these magazine pieces in the squares on their card stock. Set aside to dry. When the glue has set, have your students use the fall leaf templates to trace and cut out leaves from the collaged squares.

You may even consider having your students complete each of these crafts throughout the week and then using all of them to create the bulletin board.

"We Are Jumping Into Fall!" Bulletin Board

• Background: Orange bulletin board paper.
• Title: "We Are Jumping Into Fall!" or "______________ (e.g. Mrs. Nelson's Class, Our Preschoolers, etc.) Are Jumping Into Fall!".
• Border: Leave the border plain or consider adding a fall leaf trimmer, solid fall-colored border, or continuing the leaf/acorn cutouts around the edge as a mock border.
• Decoration: 1) The Squirrel. Tape several pieces of white construction paper together and use an overhead projector to enlarge and trace the shape of a squirrel onto the paper. If you don’t want to mess with a projector, you can also freehand it. Use markers, paint, or oil pastels to color the squirrel and add detailing. Place the squirrel in the center of the board. 2) The Leaves. Use your students fall leaf crafts. Make a large pile at the bottom of the bulletin board and place several others around the board to create an illusion of leaves eddying down from the trees. 3) The Other Details. Think about adding acorn and pine cone cut outs to complete the fall scene. You could create templates from card stock, tracing them onto brown construction paper or card stock, or you might be able to find a black and white clip-art image online or through your word processing software that could be printed onto colored card stock then cut out.

This board will remind your students of the fun that autumn brings! We'd love to hear how you decorate for fall so leave us a comment below!