Updated February 10, 2023
Today we are sharing a fun November craft project!
It is an Indian corn craft for toddlers and preschoolers.
If you are homeschooling like we are, it can be a challenge keeping young two and three years olds busy.
I’m always trying to come up with new crafts that are simple to set up, use materials we have on hand and are easy to clean up.
You can do this project any time in the fall.
But we did this project during Thanksgiving week.
Thanksgiving week is super hectic for most families.
Having some easy Thanksgiving toddler crafts for your kids to do is so important.
So let’s jump right in and see how we set it up for our kiddos.
Indian Corn Craft For Toddlers
Supplies:
Construction Paper or Card Stock in Yellow and Green
School Glue
Buttons
Scissors
Fold the yellow and the green paper in half, vertically.
Directions:
Fold the yellow and the green paper in half, vertically.
If your toddler has trouble with this you can fold it for them.
You want to keep arts and crafts fun and not overly frustrating for your young toddler.
Invite your child to cut the shape of an ear of corn from the yellow paper.
I like to let the kids do this step so that they can work on scissor skills and so that each ear looks a little different, like in nature.
Next, cut the green paper to be just a little bigger, and if you like, you can add some leaves to the edges.
For small kids, an adult might need to do this step. Older kids can handle it though.
Now, glue the yellow ear of corn onto the green paper.
Add several dots of glue to the yellow paper.
You can have them use a squeeze bottle of glue or give them a paintbrush or even a q-tip to spread the glue around the corn.
Add fall colors like orange, yellow, red, and brown buttons to create the Indian corn.
It is great if you have buttons of different sizes.
You can also use colored corn kernels or dye corn kernels to use for this craft.
Allow to dry and display.
I have shared in other posts that a fun idea to display your toddler’s artwork is to buy some cheap frames and to feature their seasonal art creations throughout your house.
You can get inexpensive frames at Target, Walmart, or on amazon.
Our kids love to see their artwork displayed.
Tips for making arts and crafts enjoyable for your toddler:
- Play music! Music can help improve mood and draw out their creativity. music helps fuel our imagination. Toddlers are at the right age to really begin enjoying music, and it’s a huge part of development!
- Encourage movement. Asking a toddler to sit for too long is a recipe for disaster. This is a super important step, whether taking breaks to get up and move around a little or incorporating movement into it. We want our toddlers to find art time to be a joy, not a chore.
- Discuss their art with them. Write down the words they use to describe their art if they want you to.
- Allow them to do more than one art project. Get them more paint and paper if they ask.
- If the weather allows go outside and do art projects outside in nature. Fresh air and exercise are always appreciated, and the environment might give some much-needed inspiration for arts and crafts!
- Laugh, sing, and smile.
- Take nature walks and collect items like leaves, acorns, feathers, flowers, and rocks to use in art projects. Bring your camera and take lots of pictures of changing leaves or animals you might see getting ready for winter. Look for squirrels scurrying about searching for acorns. Be sure to talk about the things they see and hear. Point out the bright blue sky and listen to the leaves crunching underneath your feet.
We try to tie literature into all of our other activities.
Reading to your toddler is so important.
The best way to cultivate a love of reading in your child is to read to them every day.
Let them see you reading and enjoying books.
These are some of the fall and Thanksgiving books we have loved:
Why is doing arts and crafts important for toddlers?
Arts and crafts are important activities for toddlers to get ample opportunity to engage in every day.
These activities encourage creativity, imagination, and language skills!
Since arts and crafts require working with objects, it teaches toddlers about different shapes, textures, and colors.
They will also learn how things work and how they match.
This is one of the books we use to encourage our toddlers and preschoolers to practice scissor skills.
Creativity is also developed from arts and crafts, as it encourages kids to experiment and play in a relaxed and fun environment.
Children often have an immense imagination, and the best way to turn this endless imagination into something productive is through arts and crafts.
There are various colors, shapes, and materials, not forgetting activities that kids can choose from. This allows them to explore multiple options and select the most enjoyable ones.
And maybe through this, they can discover an enjoyable hobby such as drawing, which can develop into a lucrative career in the future.
Pinecone painting is an adorable toddler fall art activity, but did you know it is also an excellent fine motor activity?
Your toddler will practice grasping the apple pieces, picking them up, and putting them down without dropping them.
This is an important early learning skill for your 2-year-old to practice.
What are Fine Motor Skills?
Fine motor skills are essential for using the small muscles in fingers, hands, and arms.
These muscles are important during activities such as drawing, buttoning, constructing with blocks, and zipping up a coat.
Fine motor skills impact your child’s ability to do the above types of activities and their speed to complete them.
To ensure your child performs these tasks successfully, they will need lots of opportunities to practice and gain mastery in the early toddler years.
Some of the common fine motor skills are:
- Pencil skills like coloring and drawing
- Scissor skills such as cutting and rearranging the paper
- Doll dressing and manipulation
- Dressing, i.e., zips, buttons, lacing, and tying shoelaces
- Basic hygiene like brushing teeth, washing their face, and combing their hair
- Construction skills such as puzzles and Duplo
Why are fine motor skills important for toddlers?
It’s hard not to emphasize the importance of fine motor skills in everyday life because they enable us to perform simple tasks.
If a child is unable to complete the basic everyday tasks, it will take a toll on their self-esteem, affecting their play, academics, and co-curricular activities.
Also, children without the appropriate fine motor skills will find it hard to get independent life skills such as feeding or dressing, which will have many implications on relationships with other peers.
That is why fine motor activities are so important for your toddler to get plenty of opportunities to engage in.
Thankfully, there are amazing activities that you can do to help kickstart those developments outside of normal day-to-day life.
Arts and crafts often require children to use their hands in a specific manner; through this coordination, they will develop bilateral coordination and fine motor skills.
For instance, drawing lines and dots, tearing a piece of paper, or cutting it with shears are demanding assignments in terms of mastery, and children enjoy doing them.
Such tasks can help a toddler develop faster and become more skilled in other everyday activities like dressing.
We hope this Indian corn craft for toddlers will be an absolute favorite for you and your toddler!
This is a perfect Thanksgiving toddler art project.
Your toddler will almost certainly enjoy doing this with you, and you’ll end up with some great memories.
This is an art project you’ll be able to display for many Thanksgivings to come!
Thank you for checking out this amazing arts and crafts project, if you’re looking for other fall-themed arts and crafts projects we have plenty for you!