Fall Leaf Suncatchers for Scissor Practice

Here is a super fun fall craft that combines scissor cutting skills with a vibrant burst of colors! We are making fall leaf suncatchers using water color painted coffee filters! This scissor cutting and fine motor activity is a staple in our fall preschool activities.

This is a fine motor activity that’s perfect for preschoolers and older toddlers. We’re not only focusing on practicing scissor skills, but we’re also creating a stunning fallen leaves suncatcher craft that will bring the beauty of autumn right into your home or classroom.

There’s nothing better than an activity that blends skill-building with seasonal artistry.

These suncatchers have a lot of fine motor work involved, which is just one more reason I love them so much for preschool. It’s not all scissor practice, either; it’s an entire art project that your preschoolers are sure to love!

Engaging preschoolers in creative, skill-building activities is a hallmark of early education.

Our scissor cutting fine motor activity is not just about developing dexterity; it’s fun art project that showcases the stunning colors of fall.

It’s a two-in-one experience – honing those essential motor skills and creating a lovely suncatcher that captures the vibrant colors of autumn. It’s hands-on learning at its best, where artistry and fine motor development go hand in hand.

Scissor cutting is just one of many important fine motor skills that are taught in preschool. If you have preschoolers who need more fine motor development activities, then try our Fine Motor Task Boxes.

Fall Leaves Suncatchers

These suncatchers capture all the vibrant colors of fall with the use of vivid watercolors on coffee filters. And when the sun shines through them in the window, it looks like a fall sunset!

Materials

• coffee filters
• liquid water color (or regular watercolor paints)
• eye droppers or pipetts
• kid-friendly scissors
• plastic tray or baking sheet with a rim
• contact paper

You can actually make these suncatchers in a couple of different ways, using different materials based on what you already have on hand.

I’ll walk you through how our preschoolers made this brightly-colored fall craft, but I’ll also explain at the end of the post other ways to get the same effect.

The Set Up

Begin by flattening out the coffee filters. You’ll only need two or three per suncatcher depending on how big you want the overall product to be. Place the flattened coffee filter on a plastic tray with some liquid watercolor and a pippett.

Now invite your child to join you for some painting, cutting, and sticking to make a beautiful fall leaves suncatcher.

Make Coffee Filter Leaves

The first step is to paint the coffee filters. We used liquid watercolor and pipettes. The pipettes take extra coordination and dexterity, and also helps preschoolers develop muscle strength and the pincer grasp.

Alternatively, you can also use regular watercolor paints and use a paint brush to dab the colors onto the coffee filter.

Once the coffee filters have had a chance to dry thoroughly, it’s time to make our fallen leaves by cutting the filters into tiny bits. This part is really fun for all preschoolers (even those without great scissor skills!) because there are no lines to cut.

I invited my preschoolers to just snip any way they chose, but encouraged a small-ish size.

Coffee Filter Suncatchers

Once the filters were cut, they really did look like a pile of fallen leaves! And we couldn’t resist playing a bit.

After all the coffee filters have been snipped into small “leaves,” invite your child to place them on some contact paper. Keep the contact paper moving while the children are working by taping it down with a little masking tape.

Many of my preschoolers treated this part like a puzzle, where they wanted to make the pieces fit into one another. Others placed the cut filter leaves randomly.

It’s also ok if your preschooler overlaps some of the pieces; this will make a pretty effect on the suncatchers.

The finished suncatchers were beautiful, and the preschool parents loved them!

To send the suncatchers home to parents, I just press them onto wax paper. Then when the preschooler gets home, the stick is still on the contact paper and it can be presses onto the window.

Three of my own children did this activity and our back windows looked so festive! It got me thinking about what the window might look like if we made a giant suncatcher that covered the entire thing!

We kept our fallen leaves suncatchers up until they faded from the sun.

How to Teaching Scissor Cutting to Preschoolers

I get a lot of questions about how to teach preschoolers to properly use scissors. Here are a few answers to make scissor practice more successful and learning fun for your preschoolers.

The Westcott brand scissors are definitely my favorite scissors from the list above.

Ways to Adjust This Activity

Since this is a process-based fall activity for toddlers and preschoolers, there’s actually a few different ways to execute it. Here are some alternatives that will give a similar effect.

• Try using tissue paper if you don’t want to paint your own coffee filters.
• You can even use construction paper. You just won’t get the see-through effect of the suncatcher.
• If you don’t have liquid watercolors, you can use a water-based marker to color the coffee filters.
  • Then spray them with water from a squirt bottle (an excellent hand strengthening activity) and proceed as described in the activity.

Fall Cutting Activities

Looking for even more fall cutting activities to keep your preschoolers practicing their scissor skills? Try some of these scissor cutting activities.

• Washi Tape Pumpkins
• Apple Scissors Skill Craft
• Acorn Cutting, Tearing & Painting
• Natural Fall Leaf Collages
• Leaf Cutting Activity for Fall