Fall – the season of corn, pumpkins, and leaves. It’s also a season resplendent with orange, red, yellow, and black crafts – handprint turkeys, anyone? One of my very favorite parts of early fall is the corn. I love eating it, I love the look of the yellow kernels, and I love corn silk, especially after it’s been dried.
What kinds of crafts can you do with corn? Decorative corn is great for crafting, both for centerpieces and for play. With the husks and the silk of everyday eating corn, you can also make some fantastic creations. Here are some corny craft ideas that you can make with your preschooler:
Decorative corn is hard corn, and it is often quite colorful. It is used in fall displays, primarily because it has stunning colors, but also because it will not rot easily. With your younger preschooler, you can use these hard corn cobs in any number of simple and creative ways.
• Painting with a corn cob
Use the cob as the paint roller, and roll it through different colors of paint. Then create long lines of bumpy-looking designs on paper. These pieces of art are perfect for Christmas and birthday wrapping paper.
• Make a corn cob instrument
These hard cobs have an intriguing texture for young children. Use popsicle sticks, combs, and other objects and brush them up and down the cob. Use the cob to bang on different surfaces. What musical sounds can you create?
• Play Dough and Corn Cobs
Use a corn cob as a roller for your play dough! It certainly makes interesting shapes in the dough, and a smaller cob is a good size for small hands. Thump the end of the cob into the dough to make play dough “flowers.”
When it’s fall, you likely have a lot of corn husk and corn silk leftovers. What crafts can you do with these? Dry the corn husks and you will have a flexible brown crafting material, and lots of it!
• Corn husk flowers
These flowers are fun to make, but they do require some assistance from an adult. Choose the number of petals that you want on the flower. This is the number of husks you need. Children can use plain husks, or they can paint them. Gather each husk together at the ends in an “o” shape, then tape or staple it. Use florist’s wire or a pipe cleaner to connect all of the corn husk petals.
• Corn husk dolls
This is an opportunity for your preschooler to make a very simple doll. Tie together some husks about two thirds of the way up to make a simple head and body. Your child can paint a face on the head and decorate the body with paper or cloth clothes.
What corny crafts are you doing this fall?