Autumn Tree Paper Plate Whirligig - Red Ted Art

Oh we do love a Paper Plate Craft! Today we have a classic paper plate whirligig craft for kids (or also known as Paper Plate Twirlers – turn your ordinary paper plate into this great Autumn Tree Paper Plate whirligig!! The lovely thing about these whirligigs, is that they make fabulous classroom decorations, but also look great in the home. You can also quickly and easily turn it into a Thanksgiving Tree paper plate whirligig! All you need to add is some thankful messages to your leaves at the end of the craft. Love this easy Autumn Craft for Preschoolers! (You will also LOVE Our Christmas Tree Twirler version!)

We love Autumn Tree Crafts.. and have a great set of Four Seasons for you to explore:

4 Seasons Bubble Wrap Printing
Nature Autumn Trees (Four Seasons exploration)
Tissue & Contact Paper Season exploration

Note: these Fall Leaf Paper Plate Twirlers were first published in Oct 2017 and have been updated and republished for your convenience!

For those looking (way ahead) in the seaons, I think you will also love this FABULOUS Paper Plate Dragon Whirlgigs for Chinese New Year (complete with printable dragons)

Autumn Tree Paper Plate Whirligig – Materials

Per tree a paper plate – if you are short on time and can get brown ones, perfect, but we like to paint ours
Brown paint & brushes
Coloured paper in reds, oranges and yellows
Scissors, glue stick, stapler
Pens for details and THANKSGIVING notes
Hole punch (single hole hole punches are super handy US / UK)
Bakers Twine (oh how I LOVE bakers twine) (US/ UK)

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It would also look REALLY nice if you did Leaf Rubbings for this craft – extending this craft to nature exploration too! Totally up to you. We like the coloured paper, as it means you have colour looking at the Whirligig straight on and from underneath.

How to make your Autumn Tree Paper Plate Whirligig

As mentioned, I think that these Paper Plate Whirligigs would make a wonderful Thanksgiving activity as well – with messages of thanks added to each tree. Children can make individual trees or you can make this a collective “family tree” thankfulness project.

Paint your paper plate brown and let dry. Paint the other side brown too.

Cut your whirligig swirl into your paper playte – it should look like a snail shell.

Cut our paper leaves – you can trace real leaves that you find or draw some free hand. We cut out 6-7 leaves in one go to save on time. This however can be GREAT cutting practice for small hands – but maybe help them by using simple shaped leaves if the kids do all the cutting themselves.

Add details to the leaves with a pen (if you wish) as well as adding yout thankfulness messages to your paper plate twirler.

Glue your leaves on with a glue stick. Make sure you alternate on both sides of the paper plate spinner!

Finally get a little string, knot it one end and secure in place with a staple or tape (or make a hole in the top of your Autumn Tree Paper Plate Whirligig and thread it through!!)

Your LOVELY Autumn Tree decoration is finished. Hang it from the ceiling and watch it spin! Lovely indeed.

More WONDERFUL Autumn Crafts for Preschoolers here:

We also have more fabulous Paper Plate Crafts here: