Today, schools and kindergartens often host various exhibitions of children's creativity, at which children and their parents are invited to make some interesting crafts. “Gifts of Autumn” crafts made from vegetables and fruits are especially popular - they are always at hand and give you the opportunity to show your imagination, working with them is not difficult, you don’t need special skills and tools, and you can create real masterpieces if you use your imagination and put in a little effort.
The benefits of co-creation
Some parents do not encourage their children’s interest in creativity, considering it a waste of time; another thing is science or, for example, sports - because it improves health, but in fact, handicrafts, especially together with elders, play an important role in the development of every child.
The advantages of being creative include:
- Developing the child’s attention and perseverance, because even to create the simplest craft you need to make an effort;
- Development of fine motor skills;
- Developing the ability to plan and set goals: first, the child must imagine the end result, and then determine what and in what order needs to be done to get it;
- Development of hand-eye coordination;
- Development of creative thinking and imagination;
- Development of spatial and analytical thinking through the study of various materials, their properties and texture.
- Fostering the desire to finish what you start.
In addition, making crafts together with parents brings them together and makes the child feel his own importance and learn to believe in himself.
Materials and tools
Once you are convinced of the undeniable benefits of creativity for children, you can begin creating crafts from vegetables and fruits. First you need to stock up on everything you need. As already noted, no specific materials or devices are required; what is available in almost every home will do.
For making crafts you will need:
- Vegetables. It is best to use potatoes, cucumber, pumpkin, carrots, bell peppers, zucchini, eggplant and other firm vegetables that hold their shape well. For example, it is undesirable to use tomatoes, since they are too juicy; beets are also unlikely to be suitable due to their coloring properties.
- Fruits. Here you should also adhere to these properties; apples, pears, watermelon rind, and oranges are perfect.
- Cones, acorns or chestnuts.
- Dried leaves and flowers.
- Dry berries, bunches of rowan or, for example, physalis are perfect.
- Seeds.
- Toothpicks.
- Several knives of different sizes; all operations with them must be carried out under adult supervision.
- Scissors.
- Glue.
- Scraps of fabric.
- Colored paper.
But this is just a rough list of what you might need. Some people use branches, moss, pieces of wood and foam rubber when creating crafts. To fasten the elements together you will need wire, thread or plasticine.
In addition, you need to take care of the space for creativity; it is best to use a special rubber mat or board so as not to damage or stain the tabletop.
Krosh
Photo: semeynaya-kuchka.ru: UGC
Children really like this cartoon character, so they will be happy to take part in its creation. To make it you will need:
- a small head of cabbage;
- zucchini, carrots, beets;
- parsley;
- pumpkin seeds - 2 pcs.;
- toothpicks, long skewers, tailor's needles;
- sheet of paper, black felt-tip pen, scissors.
This vegetable craft is very easy to make. See for yourself:
- Turn the cabbage head upside down.
- Separate a leaf from both sides of the stalk and lift them up. If the leaves break, then separate two pieces, make deep cuts in the head of cabbage slightly smaller than the width of the base of the leaves, and insert them, pushing them as deep as possible.
- Cut both edges (10 cm long) and two circles from the zucchini. Make Krosh handles from the long parts of the zucchini, and legs from the circles. Secure everything using wooden skewers.
- Cover the stalk with a bunch of parsley. Secure it with a toothpick.
- Make the nose out of beets. Cut out a small circle and secure with a tailor's needle with a black bead.
- Draw the eyes on a piece of paper, cut them out and secure with needles.
- For the mouth, make a cut under Krosh's nose and insert pumpkin seeds into it. These are teeth. If there are no seeds, then cut out the cloves from the zucchini pulp.
Attach a small carrot decorated with a bunch of parsley to Krosh’s paw.
Vegetable crafts
Most often, vegetables such as zucchini, pumpkin, potatoes, eggplant, cucumber, and carrots are used to make crafts for an exhibition or some school holiday. The reason is simple - they hold their shape well and do not deteriorate for a long time. Corn cobs are often used, sometimes radishes, cabbage and sweet peppers, which are great for making small parts. In order to fasten the vegetable parts together, you will need toothpicks; for the same purpose, you can use pieces of thick wire.
What natural materials will make beautiful crafts?
Wonderful and durable “Gifts of Autumn” crafts from vegetables are obtained if you take squash as a basis. Two wonderful “summer” snowmen from them will decorate any exhibition. A cute dog can be made from a head of cauliflower and pineapple, a melon is the future hedgehog. A boar, penguins and a zebra can be made from eggplant, a poodle can be made from cauliflower, and a whole herd of Romanov breed sheep can be made from it. This is not a complete list of what craftsmen come up with! It’s impossible to list all the ideas for making crafts on the theme “Gifts of Autumn”!
Fruit compositions
The technology for making crafts from fruits is the same as from vegetables. In some compositions they are even combined. If you use only natural products when doing your work, you can make not only a beautiful, but also an edible composition . They are sometimes used to decorate the holiday table and even serve instead of dessert. Making fruit crafts with your baby is not at all difficult. Apples of different varieties, lemons and oranges, grapes, pears and even kiwis will come to the rescue. It is also preferable to fasten fruits together with toothpicks.
For example, you can make a funny hedgehog from a pear and grapes; any child will definitely like this idea. To do this, you need to take a green pear and remove the skin from the part where it narrows. It is best to take slightly unripe fruits so that they do not soften during the process. You need to separate the grapes from each other and string them onto small skewers or toothpicks so that the stick goes right through the berry, after which the lower part is inserted into the pear from the side where the peel remains. Repeat this several times until the hedgehog’s “back” is filled with grape thorns.
All that remains is to add a nose made of dark grapes and depict the eyes. If desired, you can attach other berries and pieces of fruit to the hedgehog’s needles.
It's very easy to make a mouse out of a lemon. To do this, you only need one lemon and a couple of peppercorns for the eyes. The lemon needs to be cut lengthwise, one half will be the body of the mouse, and its nose will be the nose. After removing the peel from the other half, you can make a tail and ears from it. All that remains is to add pea eyes and make a mustache from scrap materials.
Crafts “Gifts of Autumn” for kindergarten from natural materials
In kindergarten, you can make simple but effective crafts from natural materials for the “Gifts of Autumn” exhibition. A caterpillar constructed from fresh vegetables, fruits and bright beads will look very successful and unusual. By working on creating a figurine, children will be able to develop fine motor skills and learn attention, accuracy and perseverance. The teacher's help will be required at the very minimum - only to cut carrot rings with a knife and tell the kids how best and faster to string decorative beads onto a string. The children can handle everything else just fine on their own, and then they will happily boast to each other about the results of their work.
Natural materials for making caterpillars in kindergarten
- apples - 5 pieces of the same medium size
- orange cherries – 25-30 berries
- cabbage leaf – 3 pcs
- carrots – 2 pcs.
- small multi-colored beads – 35-40 pcs.
- twine – 20 cm
- large blue beads – 2 pcs.
- satin ribbon – 80 cm
- rectangular disposable foam plate – 1 pc.
- bamboo sticks
- toothpicks
- matches
Step-by-step instructions on how to make a caterpillar in kindergarten from natural materials for the exhibition “Gifts of Autumn”
- Wash unspoilt, dense green apples with whole skin and without external defects and wipe dry with a paper napkin.
- Turn the foam plate upside down and cover it with cabbage leaves. This design will serve as a pedestal for the future figurine.
- Peel the carrots and chop into rings about 0.5-0.7 mm thick. Place the rings on top of the cabbage leaves in pairs, equidistant from each other. These are the legs of the caterpillar.
- String four apples lengthwise onto two bamboo sticks. This is the body of the future figurine.
- On the fifth apple, use toothpicks to secure two blue beads in place of the eyes, and line the smiling mouth with match heads.
- Remove the pits from the cherries. Secure one berry with a match in place of the spout. Place two toothpicks in place of the ears and string three large cherries onto each.
- Make a bow from a satin ribbon and secure it with a toothpick between the caterpillar's ears.
- Attach the finished head to the body using a bamboo stick and install the entire structure on a pedestal. Scatter the remaining cherries randomly around.
Pumpkin ideas
Not a single autumn exhibition would be complete without a pumpkin; you can use it to make a huge number of different crafts and compositions that will create the right atmosphere at the exhibition. You can simply draw or carve a face on a pumpkin and tie a scarf or bow on it, or you can get creative and create a masterpiece out of it.
Here are some examples of what you can make with pumpkin.
You can make a very beautiful and unusual candlestick from a small pumpkin: you just need to cut out the top part near the very tail of the vegetable and place a candle there. The outside can be decorated as your heart desires - cut out beautiful patterns or glue multi-colored yellow leaves.
