🎓 Skills Your Child Will Develop

• 🌈 Color & Pattern Recognition — Selecting, mixing, and arranging colors and patterns sharpens visual discrimination — the ability to notice subtle differences — which transfers directly to letter and number recognition in early literacy and math.
• 📐 Spatial Reasoning — Three-dimensional crafts — paper folding, cardboard construction, clay sculpting — develop the spatial intelligence children need for geometry, engineering, and understanding how physical objects relate in space.
• 💬 Vocabulary Expansion — Craft activities introduce rich domain-specific vocabulary: fold, crease, overlap, layer, press, symmetrical, transparent. Children who acquire craft vocabulary develop stronger descriptive language across all contexts.
• 🧠 Pre-Writing Skills — Drawing, tracing, and mark-making with a variety of tools develops the grip strength, pencil control, and visual-motor precision that handwriting requires — making craft time genuine writing preparation.

A jar of floating autumn leaves is beautiful and fascinating for preschoolers to look at. Just shake it up then place it upside down. Watch the leaves swirl and fall.

Materials You Will Need

1 empty, clean plastic jar with a tight-fitting lid
1 packet of autumn leaf confetti
Enough canola or vegetable oil to fill the jar minus enough for the leaves.
Hot glue gun (for adult use)

How to Make it

Step1:
Place a heaping tablespoon of the leaf confetti in the bottom of the jar.

Step 2:
Carefully fill the jar with oil.

Step 3:
Put the lid on as tightly as it will go. Parent should then seal it around the edges with the hot glue gun, being careful not to touch the gun to the jar or lid. 

The lid of the jar becomes the bottom of the shaker. 

Helpful Tips for Parents

Tip 1:
Try using different sizes of jars. Larger jars will require more confetti.

Tip 2:
Always use edible oil such as canola oil or vegetable oil for this craft. Never use baby oil or other oils that are used on the body. They can be very toxic.

Tip 3:
Try gluing miniatures inside the lid to make a scene. Be sure the figures are tall enough to be seen above the lid. If not, you might want to use foam glue to glue a piece of craft foam into the lid, or several of them layered, to boost the figure up a bit.

Tip 4:
Only use the plastic, metallic confetti. Paper confetti will just float on top.

Tip 5:
The larger the pieces of confetti is, the longer it will float. Smaller pieces might sink to the bottom right away. 

Tip 6:
Snow Globes make good party favors for holiday guests to take home.

Tip7:
Be sure you shake the snow globe for maximum effect before setting it on its bottom.  Don’t just turn it over.  The confetti won’t swirl and it will sink too fast.

Tip 8:
If you want to use glitter instead of confetti, use water instead of oil. The glitter will become suspended in the oil. This looks very pretty, but it doesn’t fall. The adult should add a teaspoon of isopropryl alcohol so that bacteria doesn't turn the water cloudy.

Tip 9:
Some confetti may discolor the oil after it sits a few days. As long as it’s still clear and you can see the confetti when you shake it, don’t let this concern you. In fact, it usually looks very pretty.

Tip 10:
If, and only if, you think it is safe for your child, you can use a glass jar such as a baby food jar. Please use careful judgment with this. You know best what your child can handle.

Other Designs you Can Make

Suggestion 1:
Try making scenes by gluing figures on the inside of the lid, for instance, for the autumn leaf confetti, you might glue in a Pilgrim and a little cabin or a turkey. You could also glue in a tree figure.

Suggestion 2:
Try gluing Santa and his sleigh into the lid and using snow flake confetti.

Suggestion 3:
Try gluing in a pine tree figure and using Christmas ornament confetti.

Suggestion 4:
Make snow globes as party favors for a birthday party with balloon confetti and a present figure.

Suggestion 5:
Make snow globes for a graduation party with graduation hats and a figure in graduation robes.

Suggestion 6:
For a child’s party, use Winnie the Pooh or Hello Kitty confetti. You can glue picture of the child on the outside of the jar, facing, and cover it with clear adhesive vinyl. 

Suggestion 7:
For a wedding or anniversary, use heart confetti with a bride and groom like you put on a cake.

Suggestion 8:
For Valentine’s Day, use a standing heart figure and red and pink heart confetti.

If you don't have time to make snow globes from scratch, Oriental Trading Company carries snowglobe kits. They come by the dozen and use glitter, not confetti, but there are some that have a center section where you can put a picture of your choosing.

 

 

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I'm Margaret Studer, the Preschool Crafts writer for PreschoolRock.com. In addition to crafts, I enjoy writing, children, cooking, and cats. I love to hear from my readers, so please share your preschool craft ideas with me. If you have any suggestions, ideas, or questions about this site, please contact me.

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