Harvest Festival Craft Ideas
Harvest Festival Basket Weaving
A fun, hands-on activity that brings creativity and tradition together. Children can reflect on the meaning of harvest - gratitude and community by using their mini baskets filled with treats for gift-giving.
What you need:
- Basket Weaving Kit
How to make:
- Weave the brightly coloured raffia around the card base.
- Alternate the weaving with different coloured raffia for a rainbow effect.
- Fill the finished basket with fruit and vegetables.
- Display them in a Harvest Festival assembly or classroom display.
- Donate to food banks or other charitable organisations.
Learning benefits:
- Fine motor skills
- Pattern recognition
- Cultural learning (Harvest Festival)
Shop materials:
Scarecrow Puppet
Celebrate Harvest Festival with this fun and educational scarecrow craft for kids. Ideal for teaching kids about the hard work that goes into growing crops, how scarecrows help farmers by protecting crops from hungry birds, and the importance of harvest time.
What you need:
- Wooden spoons
- Hessian
- Raffia
- Wiggle Eyes
- Paint
- Paint brush
- Glue
- Black marker pen
How to make:
- Paint the handle of the spoon with coloured paint
- Then paint the head of the spoon both sides with skin tone coloured paint
- Once dry, wrap the neck of the spoon with hessian and secure with glue
- Add wiggle eyes
- Using a black pen, draw on facial features
- Stick on raffia hair
- Add a hat made from hessian
Learning benefits:
- Imaginative play
- Storytelling skills
- Fine motor development
Shop materials:
Autumn Apple Printing Crate
This fun and engaging craft activity encourages children to explore simple printmaking using real apple shapes. By dipping and pressing, children can create beautiful autumn-themed patterns while learning about the importance of apples and other crops at harvest time.
What you need:
- A3 White Card
- A4 Black Card
- Kraft Card
- Acrylic Paint
- Paint palette
- Jute Twine & White Chalk
- Scissors, Hole Punch
- Black Marker, Pencil & Ruler
How to make:
- Pour red, yellow, orange and green paint into a sectioned paint palette
- Cut an apple in half and dip the flat part of the apple into the different coloured paints
- Press the apple onto an A3 sheet of white card
- Repeat this process until the required number of apple prints.
- Draw a stalk on some of the apples with a black marker pen
- Leave to dry
- Once dry, using scissors, carefully cut out the apple prints
- Cut 3 A4 strips of Kraft Card 3 cms wide, and 2 smaller strips 18 x 3 cms.
- Stick the Kraft card strips in a crate formation with 3 strips horizontal and a vertical strip either end onto a sheet of A3 white card. Make sure to only glue the ends of the horizontal strips so the apples can be slid in and out .
- For the sign, cut out a rectangle of black card 18 x 5cms. Punch a hole either side of the black card and the top corners of the white card. Write the price of the apples onto the black card with white chalk. Cut 2 lengths of jute twine, then thread through the holes of the sign and secure in place on the white card above the crate.
- Place the apples in the crate. You can stick them down if you do not want them to move.
Shop materials:
Harvest Festival Thankfulness Display
Harvest Festival is a special time of the year when we celebrate all the good things we have and say thank you. Long ago people gave thanks for the crops they have grown. Today, this classroom craft activity is a chance for children to stop, think and share what they are grateful for.
What you need:
- A4 white card
- Felt tip pens
- Autumn themed stickers
- Woodland themed stickers
- Presentation Board
How to make:
- Create card blanks by folding A4 white card in half and cutting along the fold. Then fold each piece in half again to form 2 card blanks.
- Ask children to write or draw something they are thankful for on the card blanks
- Decorate their card with stickers, drawings and borders
- Arrange and display on a ‘Harvest of Kindness’ board
Shop materials: