Since fall finally made its appearance down here in the South, we decided to round up some of the fall leaves in our yard and make a garland.

I’ll admit: I’m not really one for home decor. I didn’t learn much about it as a child and I’ve been a tad stubborn about doing it as an adult.

But, after sharing this easy fall leaf garland craft with the kids, I’m committed to adding a bit more “home” to our house.

This is a really simple fall craft that kids will have fun making. It’s easy, it only requires a few supplies, and it adds a sweet reminder of fall to the home.

For more fun fall kids’ activities, don’t miss our list of 50 fall books kids will treasure!

Easy Fall Leaf Garland Craft for Kids

To make this DIY fall leaf garland craft, you’ll need the following: (This post contains affiliate links. For details, see our Disclosure Policy.)

• Assorted fall leaves (choose the most colorful you can find)
• Tempera paint (optional)
• Paintbrushes (optional)
• Clear tape
• Bright yellow yarn
• Hole puncher

Rather than making leaves out of construction paper or some other medium, we just thought we’d hang actual leaves.

We let them dry out for a couple of weeks so they’d be easy to punch holes in.

Choose your leaves about two weeks before you intend to make your garland. Sit them on a counter or in a plastic bag so that they’ll have plenty of time to stiffen before you make the craft.

I helped the kids place the hole punch, but they pushed the lever (which they loved).

To keep the holes from spreading and cracking the leaves, we punched them as close to the center as possible and towards the stem end.

Since these leaves were just brown, we wanted to add a bit more color.

Tempera paint to the rescue!

We didn’t choose any particular art designs in advance. It was more of a “paint and see what happens” open-ended art activity.

All that was left to do was string the leaves on our yarn!

When we made a fall leaf garland a few years ago, we found lots of different colored leaves.

Those were gorgeous as is, so we just hole punched them all and let the kids get started stringing the leaves on a long piece of yarn.

Everyone had a designated pile to work with and they took turns adding their leaves to the garland.

This was such a nice afternoon activity. Threading the leaves was good fine motor practice for the kids.

We all had fun choosing leaves together. And it was nice to see something we made together hanging in the home all autumn long.

Want more fall activities? Check out these posts!

Plus, get more awesome fall inspiration on my Fall Activities for Kids Pinterest board!