Acorn Crafts for Kids

August 30, 2024 by Sarah White Leave a Comment

It seems like the squirrels are already getting all the acorns where I live, but if you can save some from them (not too many; they’ve got to eat, too!) you can make some fun acorn crafts. Whether you do this at home or in a classroom, it’s a fun way to hang onto fall and make something pretty with natural materials.

I’ve never really done anything special with my acorns when we bring them inside, but if you want to make yours last for years, check out the tips at Staying Close to Home. If you want to just paint your acorns and leave it at that, this tutorial from Home Stories A to Z can help you there.

Of course an acorn, painted or not, is an obvious surface for a face (like on these acorn necklaces we shared a few years ago; the original site seems to be gone but I’ll bet you can get the idea from the photo of how to make your own).

And from adding a face it’s only a short journey to turning acorns into squirrels, like this adorable project from Toys in the Dryer. Or you can make acorn mice like these from Kids Craft Room. Use a pipe cleaner if you don’t have fuzzy yarn for the tail.

Or grab the googly eyes and some other materials and make a fun character with acorns, like these from Raising a Blessing. So cute!

Add a marble to an acorn cap to make a pretty necklace with instructions from Rhythms of Play. You could also just paint the caps separately and use them in projects, as hats for peg dolls or in other ways your kids are sure to come up with on their own.

You can also turn acorns into adorable toadstool mushrooms. Learn how from Twig and Toadstool.

How do you play and craft with acorns? I’d love to hear your ideas!

Acorn Learning Activities

Make Pretty Acorn Necklaces with Marbles

Using Natural Objects in the Fall Classroom

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Acorn Learning Activities

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Book Review: Little Mole Gives Thanks

One way to help teach kids about Thanksgiving and why it’s important to be grateful is by reading books, and Little Mole Gives Thanks by Glenys Nellist, illustrated by Sally Garland, is a sweet story about the value of friendship and sharing.

Little Mole has made a feast and invited some very important guests, but when they all cancel at the last minute, Mole is reminded that the most important people in his life are his friends and family. All the animals in the forest join together and have a feast, raising a glass to the creatures who are always there for them.

It’s a quick little story but it’s sweet, and the book also includes a little information about how you can plan your own fancy forest feast.

This would be a really fun thing to do with a preschool group. You could read the book and plan your own fancy forest feast, which could be a regular lunch made fancy by eating outside and making some fun decorations for the table or picnic area. Families could bring food or kids can help prepare a treat in the classroom, depending on how you’re set up.

I also love the idea of using a book like this to talk about the people who are important in our lives. Mole’s special guests — the school principal, a firefighter and the mayor — are all important people and worth being thankful for, but in our day-to-day lives, the people who are closest to us are really the ones who are most important and who we should be thankful for. But it’s easy to forget showing gratitude to people we see all the time.

And that’s really what Thanksgiving is all about! Giving thanks for those people who are important to us on special days, but on every other day, too. Little Mole Gives Thanks is an easy way to start those conversations with little kids.

About the book: 32 pages, hardcover, published 2023 by Beaming Books, suggested retail price $17.99.

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