Kids Get Crafty – Acorn Animals

There seems to be an explosion of Autumn nature crafts on Red Ted Art at the mothen we finished our Get Crafty with Nature ebook, then we made acorn elves and nature fairy houses… and now.. now we have acorn animals for you! Hooray!

The great thing about fresh acorns, is that they are quite soft, so small hands can manage making holes too (compared to chestnuts, which can be a little tricky). I used to make variations of these as a child. We made a horsey and some sheep… now the horse can be made whilst out and about (though it helps to have a toothpick or maybe a pen in your pocket) and the sheep need to be finished at home, thanks to the “wool”.

I now feel as if I should tell you a wonderful story about a horse and a sheep, as I don’t have a book about one. But I don’t have a wonderful story either.

So you get a Limerick that I just made up. I once got a Girl Guide badge thanks to Limericks!

There once was a horse and a sheep.

Who thought that they couldn’t find sleep.

So they ran up and down

All over the town

Until finally with sleep they did meet.

OR how about:

There once an acorn did fall

It really did not like that at all

Then a little boy came

Who brought it some fame

By making it into a wonderful doll

Fancy making a Limerick up? Go on! I challenge you… leave me one in the comments. You would make my day!

Don’t like crafting with acorns?

Try our conker crafts instead – a lovely collection of ideas for you here! Love the use of playdough to make more conker animals.

The Craft

A wonderfully straight forward craft. At this time of year many acorns are still green and those that have dropped to the ground are still quite soft.

Take two acorns, and one long thin twig, use you toothpick to create holes and later add cotton wool with glue!

1. Do check which way round your acorn will look best – we like that our animals have little “chests”… Use your toothpick to prick for holes at the bottom of one acorn and one on top. Insert 5 little sticks broken off from your long thin twig. Prick another hole in the “head” acorn and place on top. If you have a horse, add two more little twigs for ears… If you don’t have a toothpick a pen *may* be enough to prick the beginning of the hole and make the insertion of a twig easier.

2. If you are making a sheep, add lots of glue! Red Ted loved making these. Whilst Pip Squeak loved taking hers apart.

3. Draw on eyes.

Ta Da!

Red Ted skipped outside and placed them in the fairy house!

We then made a little car:

But it “disappeared” before I got  a photo of it all finished (this shows the “underneath”). 

Do browse the rest of our Autumn Crafs for kids – with MANY more lovely nature crats to try out!