This is a fun autumn-themed back-to-school craft for little ones! A wonderful activity for preschoolers and Kindergarteners just learning how to write their first letters and spell their names and celebrate the beauty of fall as the trees begin the change color and the weather cools.

With these free printable page kids can color in their leaves with nice fall colors of red, gold, brown, and orange and practice writing the letters of their name on each leaf.

Once finished, this page makes a lovely locker or cubby decoration to help kids remember where they need to put their things and get to know each other’s names in those first weeks of the school year, all while looking very fall-festive!

Fall Name Craft Supplies & Instructions

Supplies

• Printed template page & leaf page (download at the bottom of this post)
• Glue
• Safety scissors
• Glitter, pom poms, stickers, etc.
• Found natural autumn bits and pieces – leaves, acorn tops, etc.

1. Have kids color in enough leaves for their name. If using in the classroom with many children, cut a strip of leaves using the dotted lines as a guide and give each child enough for their name. For very small children you might want to cut the leaves in squares using the guidelines and not have them cut out each individual leaf themselves.
2. Help kids write a letter of their name on each leaf.
3. Have kids cut around the leaves and stick them in order on their page using a gluestick.
4. Decorate the rest of the page with natural fall items or with craft items like stickers and foam shapes.
5. If using in the classroom, turn the craft into a math activity – kids can practice counting the number of letters in each other’s names – see who has the longest of shortest name, or see what number of letters is most common.
6. Hang on a bedroom door or use as a locker or cubby decoration.

Note

I have included a PNG file with transparent background for the leaf page so you can cut out the leaves on Cricut or other die-cutting machines, if desired. Be aware that Cricut needs to resize the image to be able to cut it out, so the leaves end up slightly smaller than if they were printed not using the Cricut ‘Print then Cut’ feature

What Kids Learn With This Craft

Name Recognition

• Seeing and arranging the letters of their own name helps children become familiar with one of the first words they’ll learn to read and write.

Letter Recognition

• Children identify each letter in their name while coloring, cutting, and assembling the leaves in the correct order.

Early Literacy Skills

• Understanding that letters form words left-to-right reading order
• Sequencing letters correctly

Fine Motor Skills

• Coloring, cutting, and gluing all strengthen the small muscles in children’s hands that are needed for writing.

Hand-Eye Coordination

• Carefully cutting around each leaf and placing it in order helps improve coordination and control.

Pencil Control

• Coloring inside the lines and writing each letter encourages better pencil grip and control.

Sequencing Skills

• Children must arrange the leaves in the correct order to spell their name.

Creativity

• Kids can decorate each leaf with different fall colors, patterns, or even add glitter, stickers, or painted details.

Color Recognition

Perfect for learning classic autumn colors like:

• Red
• Orange
• Yellow
• Brown
• Green

Ways to Extend the Activity for Further Learning

After making the name craft, kids can also:

• Count how many letters are in their name.
• Compare whose name is longest or shortest.
• Make a second banner using a family member’s or friend’s name.
• Practice saying the sound each letter makes.
• Print more leaf pages and write all the letters of the alphabet to practice spelling other words!