Autumnal Leaf Wind Spinners

The idea for this craft was acquired from a group I helped with the other year, who were putting on a Light party. 
I carefully stored the idea in my head and up it popped at our Autumn Term planning meeting. 

Unusually for me, I'm posting it BEFORE we've done it, as I'll be missing from the group next week, and wanted to leave my instructions where they could easily be found!

Hey presto...

The original completed flat 'Spinner' that inspired this week's craft.

The craft is based on those snake spinners you may have made as a child. You cut out a spiral, which once decorated and opened up, looks something like this:

Hanging 'Spinner'.

Unfortunately, this one has dropped slightly. The more you stick on it, the more it will stretch and drop, so you might need to warn the parents that this could happen.

Hopefully, the cute little foam stickers that we ordered from Baker Ross*, which are smaller than the leaves in the original version, will drag our spinners down less!

Equipment:

• Card in Autumnal hues

• Scissors

• Hole punch

• Ribbon

• Leaf stickers/shapes

• Paint in Autumnal hues

• Paint trays

• Baby wipes

• Overalls

Foam stickers are great for little fingers

Preparation:

This craft is quite prep heavy!

• Order/buy leaf shape stickers.

• Photocopy spinner onto light card in Autumnal hues (eg. red, orange, yellow).

• Cut spinners out.

• Use a hole punch to punch a hole in the end of the spinner. Or you could stick yarn on with sellotape.

• Cut short lengths of ribbon or wool (ours is from Baker Ross*).

• Pour poster paint in Autumnal hues into some paint trays.

Painted fingerprints add additional skill and interest.

Method:

1. Help children put on overalls.

2. Give each child a spinner with their name written on the back first. It may help to add the ribbon at this stage too!

3. Show children how to finger print paint along the spiral (great for practicing the kind of motor skills they need for tracing letters).

4. Give children a selection of Autumnal leaves to stick on their spinner. I would suggest doling these out, once they've finished their painting, to avoid running out before the end of the session.

5. Place on 'Home' table to dry. Wipe sticky fingers off with Baby wipes.


*Please note: We are not affiliated to Baker Ross. Any mention of brands is purely to aid sourcing of materials. There is no financial gain from running this blog.