We have been collecting chestnuts, acorns, pumpkin seeds and berries for a while. We love fall and kids (and I) love bringing a lot of signs on fall inside a classroom. We have a big ‘fall treasures’ box by the door that we have been adding to… and it was time to start using these treasures as well.

That’s when we decided to make these salt dough decorations/mandalas. They are so easy to make and so much fun:

• 1 cup of salt
• 2 cups of flour
• 1 cup of water

Mix the dry ingredients and then slowly add the water. This dough is so much fun to work with. Kids loved helping me measure, mix and cut out ‘cookies.’

Time to decorate. We set up a shopping station in the middle of the table and everybody chose their favorite berries, acorns, coffee seeds (I know they do not really scream fall but they are the right size and kids loved them)…

Kids loved working on them. Some made faces, others patterns and mandalas. Some used mostly pumpkin seeds, others used everything they could. They were all so focused.

Now we just need to wait for a week for the ornaments to dry – yes, you can dry them in the oven but since we added so much stuff onto them I did not want to risk that – so patience it is.