Fall Suncatchers
While we love the holiday lights, wreaths, and trees that we’re now seeing, it’s still in the Fall season! Let’s continue to celebrate the season and all of its colorful beauty with Fall suncatchers. These suncatchers encourage speech, language, and fine motor skills, as well as foster creativity and connection with the natural world around us.
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Items Needed:
Pumpkin picture to cut and trace. Here are some excellent choices:
Leaves, hay, sticks, and anything else you can find outside!
How to Create the Suncatcher:
Print and cut the pumpkin image out.
Lay the pumpkin image on top of the construction paper. Then, trace the pumpkin onto the paper.
Next, cut the pumpkin image out of the construction paper. Be sure to start your scissors on the inside, or on the outline, of the pumpkin and not from the edge of the construction paper! This will ensure that you are cutting the pumpkin OUT of the construction paper (it should look like there is a “hole” in the shape of the pumpkin in the construction paper once this step is complete!).
Cut a piece of contact paper large enough to cover the pumpkin “hole”. Peel and stick the contact paper onto the construction paper.
Finally, fill the pumpkin design with leaves, hay, sticks, and any other materials you’ve collected from outside and enjoy your beautiful creation!
Articulation and Phonological Skills
Rhyming Words
Choose a word from the craft, such as red, stick, or cut. Have your child generate rhyming words from it!
Targeting Sounds
Is your child practicing specific sounds in speech therapy?
If your child is able to read, have them read the directions above and highlight any words with their sounds in it!
If your child is not yet a reader, work as a team and think of all the words related to this craft with their sound in it! For example, if they’re working on the “L” sound, there’s “Look”, “Leaf”, “Little”. If they’re working on the “S” sound, words like “Scissors”, “Stick”, “Sticky”, and “Small” are excellent to practice! Use a mirror and start practicing those sounds!
Segmenting Syllables
Lay the leaves you have collected on the table. These will be used as a visual for your child. Then, say a word aloud and have the child tap out on the leaves to identify how many syllables they hear in a word! For example, if you say the word “puppy”, they should tap two leaves, meaning there are two syllables in the word!
Language Skills
Describing Items
Talk to your child about all of the treasures you collected from outside! A bumpy stick, a small leaf, or yellow hay!
Sorting items
Make piles of the items you’ve found. You can sort by color, object, and size!
Following Directions
Work on following directions with your child while outside or making the craft. You can work on short, simple directions, such as “get sticks”. You can also work on increasing the number of steps or number of details within a direction, such as “find 1 stick and 1 red leaf”, for an increased challenge.
We hope you and your little ones enjoy this craft! Be sure to tag us at @owlstherapy if you share this craft online- we’d love to see what you create. Happy Fall!