You and your child are going to love these easy and fun August crafts for toddlers and preschoolers with loads of inspiration to keep you crafting together throughout the month.
I’ve chosen four fun themes that are perfect for August and the summer months with nature crafts, zoo animal crafts, transportation crafts and back to school crafts.
They’re easy to make, use simple supplies and are perfect for making at home or in a preschool classroom.
What You'll Find on This Page
Easy August Crafts for Toddlers and Preschoolers
Personally I love the summer weather and the excuse to get outside but I’m also aware that not every day is full of sunshine and these easy crafts are perfect for a quiet afternoon indoors.
Many of these crafts are ones that I’ve made with my kids when they were toddlers or preschoolers but I’ve also rounded up some fun August craft ideas from other creators.
These toddler and preschooler crafts can help you support their fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination and color recognition all while encouraging creativity and having fun together.
As with all crafts for toddlers and preschoolers you will need to supervise your child throughout the activity especially where scissors or small items such as pom poms are being used.
More Themes for August
If you need more inspiration for crafts and activities to try during August with your child then why not check out the list below, all of which would be great for the summer months.
- Sunshine crafts
- Colors
- Lemonade
- Community helpers
- Camping
- Bubbles
- Bugs and insects
- Sunflowers
- Butterflies
Free Printables for August Themed Activities
On this site you’ll find loads of free printables and templates designed to help you have fun with your child with ideas that are low-cost, low-prep and age appropriate.
Our templates are designed as the starting place for lots of our activities and with each one you’ll find simple ideas for how you can use them at home or in preschools.
The templates below are all ones that I think would be a great addition to your August crafts and activities.
Nature Crafts
Make the most of the warm summer days with these hands-on crafts and activities inspired by nature or using natural materials.
Nature Tree Craft
This easy craft was inspired by my daughter and her desire to pick the leaves and flowers in our garden to play with and make things.
It uses one of our free printables templates and is a fun way to get creative using natural materials.
Egg Carton Bird Feeder
Making a bird feeder from an egg carton means that it won’t last forever but this easy activity is ideal for sunny days and it’s a great way to encourage wildlife into your backyard.
Frozen Flowers
These frozen flowers are a sweet way to encourage sensory play for your child and you can make them in advance yourself for your child to play with or make them together using flowers and natural materials from your backyard.
Make A Bug Hotel
Create a home for wildlife by using terracotta pots, bricks or wooden pallets for a base and then filling them with dry leaves, pieces of bark, dry sticks, garden canes and pine cones for bugs to explore.
Zoo Animals
With summer in full swing a trip to a zoo is a popular choice for a lot of families and these zoo animal crafts are a great way to help encourage creativity in younger kids with easy activities that use basic materials.
Paper Plate Zebra Craft
Paper plate crafts are a great choice for younger kids as they’re easy to buy from stores, cheap and a really sturdy craft material.
Here we’ve used torn paper to make the zebra’s stripes which is a great way to use up old or recycled materials too.
Elephant Suncatcher
I made these elephant suncatchers with my kids using the Elmer the Elephant book as inspiration.
Using the tissue paper squares to decorate them is a simple way to support fine motor skills and the finished craft stayed displayed in our window for ages, always a good sign of a successful activity.
Paper Plate Snake
This snake craft can be created in two different ways depending on the age and abilities of your child.
Older children can use scissors to help create the snake shape itself but if that’s not appropriate for your child then they can use pom poms, fingerprints or dot markers to decorate the snake’s body.
Lion Craft
You’ll need an adult to cut out the face shape for this lion craft but toddlers an preschoolers will be able to color the lion’s mane using yellow and orange paints.
Transportation Crafts
Transportation and vehicle crafts are often popular for younger kids and with planes, cars, boats and many more to choose from there’s loads of inspiration for fun activities to try.
Vehicle Dot Marker Printables
Color in a car, train, plane or boat with these do a dot marker worksheets that are perfect if you need an easy activity quickly.
Paper Plate Cars
I love this simple tutorial from Glued To My Crafts sharing how to make a car from paper plates and tissue paper squares.
Painting with Toy Cars
This simple activity was a favorite of my sons at a parent and toddler group that we attended. Take some toys vehicles such as toy cars, tractors or trains and roll them in paint that’s been placed in a plate or tray before rolling your vehicle across some white paper.
I would recommend using old toys for this just in case you can’t get all the paint off and opting for a large piece of paper.
Using different colored paints means that you’ll end up with a more interesting looking piece of art and also gives you the opportunity to look at color mixing together.
Hot Air Balloon Spin Art
Process art is perfect for toddlers and preschoolers to make with the emphasis being on creativity rather than a ‘perfect’ finished product.
Here Turner Tots shares a fun tutorial for making a hot air balloon craft that uses paints and a salad spinner to make a colorful hot air balloon craft that would look great displayed at home or in preschools.
Back To School
While toddlers and preschoolers may not be starting elementary school themselves they’re often aware of what’s happening to older children and siblings and a back to school topic can be a fun way to include them in the excitement.
Paper Plate Apples
Apples are a big theme as part of a back to school topic and these paper plate apples are ones that I made with my kids when they were aged three and six years old.
Painting with pom poms or cotton balls is a good alternative to finger painting if your child doesn’t like the feel of paint and it’s a lot less messy too!
Back To School Color By Number
Help support your child’s color recognition and number recognition with these simple coloring pages that feature books, a globe, pencil and a school bus.
If you’re also preparing activities for older children then you might find it helpful to know that there’s also a color by sum printable available in the PDF file.
Crayon Collages
This crayon craft from the Autism Helper is a great way to support color recognition and emerging scissor skills as well as fine motor skills and it only uses really basic craft supplies to make it.
School Bus Craft
This simple school bus craft from Honey and Lime has been designed to be appropriate for preschool aged kids.
You’ll find a printable template to help you make it and it’s a good way to help support shape recognition too.
More Monthly Crafts for Toddlers and Preschoolers
This post is part of a series of monthly themed ideas of easy crafts that you can create with your child. If you’d like some more inspiration why not check out our July crafts for toddlers and preschoolers with themes including shark and sea animal crafts and picnics.
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