This adorable fingerprint fox craft is a fun way to celebrate fall while sneaking in plenty of fine motor practice. Kids will love using colorful fingerprints or dot markers to create their own one-of-a-kind woodland fox!
Fingerprint Fox Craft for Kids
This adorable fingerprint fox craft is a fun fall art project for preschool and kindergarten kids! Children color, paint, cut and glue to create their own colorful little fox while getting lots of valuable fine motor practice along the way.
I especially love this craft for a fall or woodland animal theme. Kids can use their fingertips and washable paint to create the fox’s colorful fur, or you can swap the paint for dot markers if you want a less messy option.
Pair it with Fletcher and the Falling Leaves and you’ve got the sweetest fall craft and literacy activity for home or the classroom.
Easy Fingerprint Fox Craft
Our fingerprint fox craft for kids combines several kid-friendly art techniques in one simple project.
Children start by coloring the fox’s face and ears. Then, they use their fingertips dipped in fall-colored paint to decorate the separate head piece.
Once the paint is dry, they’ll cut out both pieces, glue the painted head onto the fox’s face and finish their little woodland friend by drawing two eyes with a black marker.
The best part? No two foxes will look exactly alike!
Give kids a selection of orange, red and yellow paint and let them experiment. Some will carefully stamp individual fingerprints while others will overlap their prints and completely cover the fox’s head; and that’s part of the fun.
Why You’ll Love This Fox Craft
This easy fall fox craft is simple to prepare and uses basic craft supplies you probably already have on hand.
It’s a great choice for preschool, pre-K and kindergarten because it gives children an opportunity to practice several important skills while creating something they’re excited to take home or display.
Kids will work on:
- Fine motor skills
- Hand-eye coordination
- Coloring
- Finger painting
- Scissor skills
- Gluing
- Following multi-step directions
- Creative expression
It’s also easy to adapt. Use fingerprints for a hands-on sensory experience, dot markers for easier cleanup or even regular paintbrushes if that’s what you have available.
Supplies
To make this fingerprint fox craft, you’ll need:
- Printable fox craft template – snag a copy of the pdf file at the very bottom of this blog post
- White cardstock or heavyweight printer paper
- Crayons, markers or colored pencils
- Washable paint
- Dot markers, optional
- Scissors
- School glue or glue stick
- Black marker
- Paper plate or paint palette
For the fingerprint version, I like putting out a few warm fall paint colors. Orange, red and yellow work beautifully together and give the fox’s head lots of colorful texture.
Tip: I recommend printing the fox template on good quality cardstock when you’re using paint. It’s sturdier than regular printer paper and holds up much better to enthusiastic little painters.
How To Make a Fingerprint Fox Craft
Step 1: Print the Fox Template
Start by printing the fingerprint fox craft template onto white cardstock.
The printable has separate pieces for the fox’s face and the top of its head. Don’t cut or glue anything together just yet. It’s much easier for little hands to color and paint the pieces while they’re still on the full sheet of cardstock.
Step 2: Color the Fox
Have children use crayons, markers or colored pencils to color the fox’s face and ears.
We used orange for the outer portion of the ears and left the cheeks beige to create a traditional red fox look.
But there’s no reason every fox has to look the same! Let kids choose their own colors and personalize their fox however they’d like.
Step 3: Finger Paint the Fox’s Head
Now comes the fun part!
Squirt small amounts of orange, red and yellow washable paint onto a paper plate or paint palette.
Have children dip a fingertip lightly into the paint and press it onto the separate fox head piece.
Continue making fingerprints until the entire top of the fox’s head is filled with colorful prints.
Kids can alternate colors, overlap their fingerprints or create little clusters of different shades. Overlapping the colors creates the wonderful textured appearance you see on our finished fox.
There’s really no wrong way to do this step.
Don’t Want To Use Finger Paint?
You can easily turn this into a dot marker fox craft instead.
Give children orange, red and yellow dot markers and have them make colorful dots all over the fox’s head.
Dot markers are an especially good alternative for classroom centers or situations where you don’t have time to wait for paint to dry.
You could also use regular washable paint and paintbrushes, although you won’t get quite the same fingerprint texture.
Step 4: Let the Paint Dry
Set the fox aside until the paint is completely dry.
Drying time will depend on how much paint children used. If you’re doing this activity with preschoolers, I’d plan for a little extra drying time: little kids have a special talent for using a LOT of paint!
Letting everything dry completely will make the next cutting step much easier and less messy.
Step 5: Cut Out the Fox
Once the paint has dried, carefully cut out the fox’s painted head and face.
Older preschool and kindergarten children can practice cutting the pieces independently.
Younger children may need some adult help, especially around the smaller curves and corners.
Step 6: Glue the Fox Together
Position the painted head piece over the top of the fox’s face.
Once it’s lined up correctly, use school glue or a glue stick to attach the two pieces.
Press gently to secure everything in place.
Step 7: Draw the Eyes
Use a black marker to draw two simple eyes on the fox’s white cheeks.
And that’s it!
Your adorable fingerprint fox craft is finished and ready to display.
Fine Motor Benefits
One of the reasons I love crafts like this fingerprint fox craft is that kids are doing so much more than making something cute.
This simple preschool fox craft gives little hands plenty of valuable fine motor practice.
Making individual fingerprints requires children to isolate and intentionally control their fingers. Coloring requires a different type of grasp and hand movement, while cutting strengthens the small muscles in the hands and requires children to coordinate what they see with how they move their scissors.
Even spreading glue and pressing the pieces together requires controlled hand movements.
These are the same muscles and coordination skills children rely on for everyday tasks like holding a pencil, writing letters, using scissors, buttoning clothing and manipulating small objects.
And because they’re busy making a colorful fox, all that practice feels like play.
Learning Ideas
This fingerprint fox craft for kids can easily become part of a larger learning theme.
Try making fingerprint foxes while learning about:
- Fall and changing seasons
- Woodland animals
- Forest habitats
- Foxes
- Animal adaptations
- Fall colors
- The letter F
- Trees and changing leaves
You can also use the finished foxes as a starting point for language and early writing activities.
Ask younger children to name their fox and tell you a story about it. Older kindergarten or early elementary children can write a sentence about where their fox lives, what it eats or what adventure it might go on.
Make a Fall Fox Bulletin Board
Making this craft with a classroom or daycare group? Save those foxes!
They make an adorable fall bulletin board display.
Give children the same printable and selection of fall paint colors, but let them decorate their fox independently. Differences in coloring, fingerprints, paint placement, cutting and facial expressions will naturally make each fox look unique.
Display the finished foxes together with a fall or woodland background.
Some cute bulletin board sayings could include:
- Our Fabulous Fall Foxes
- Fantastic Foxes
- We’re Wild About Fall
- What Does the Fox Say? Hello, Fall!
- Falling Into Fun
You could even add paper leaves around the foxes to create a colorful woodland scene.
Fox Books To Read With This Craft
Turning a craft into a simple literacy activity can be as easy as adding a good picture book.
Here are some fun fox books for preschool and kindergarten that pair beautifully with this fingerprint fox craft.
Fletcher and the Falling Leaves by Julia Rawlinson
If I were choosing just one book to pair with this craft, this would be it.
Fletcher and the Falling Leaves follows a sweet little fox named Fletcher who becomes worried when the leaves on his favorite tree begin changing colors and falling to the ground.
It’s a beautiful story about seasonal change and makes a natural companion to this craft.
I especially love reading the book first and then giving kids red, orange and yellow paint for their fingerprint foxes. The warm colors connect beautifully with all the changing leaves in the story.
It’s such a fun way to combine a fall read-aloud, art and a simple conversation about what happens to trees during autumn.
Fox in Socks by Dr. Seuss
If your kids love silly books, Fox in Socks is always a fun read-aloud.
The tongue twisters and rhyming words make it especially entertaining for preschool and kindergarten kids, and you can even use it to introduce a simple conversation about rhyming words.
- A collection of tongue twisters that is an amusing exercise for beginning readers.
- This Fox is a tricky fox. He’ll try to get your tongue in trouble.
- One of Seuss’s best, this must-read-aloud classic is to get many giggles out of readers young and old.
- Hardcover Book
Little Fox in the Forest by Stephanie Graegin
Little Fox In The Forest is a beautifully illustrated, nearly wordless picture book is a wonderful choice for encouraging storytelling.
Because children rely heavily on the illustrations to understand what’s happening, you can pause and ask them what they notice, what they think will happen next and how the characters might be feeling.
How to Find a Fox by Nilah Magruder
A determined little girl heads outside with her camera hoping to find and photograph a fox.
How To Find A Fox a fun choice for a woodland or forest theme and a great starting point for talking about observing animals in nature.
The Fox and the Wild by Clive McFarland
Fred is a city fox who becomes curious about the mysterious “wild” and sets off to find it.
The Fox and The Wild is a sweet story that pairs nicely with a discussion about where foxes and other animals live and what makes a habitat suitable for them.
The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson
Fox may not be the star of The Gruffalo, but he is one of the memorable woodland animals the clever little mouse meets on his walk through the forest.
The repetitive text and fun collection of forest animals make this one a favorite read-aloud for younger children.
More Fall Crafts and Activities
Want to keep crafting? Here are some of our favorite fall crafts and activities for preschool and kindergarten that pair nicely with this fingerprint fox.
Newspaper Fox Craft
Our Newspaper Fox Craft is another adorable way to make a woodland fox. Kids use newspaper and simple craft supplies to create their fox, making it a fun opportunity to experiment with a completely different art material.
Fall Hedgehog Craft
This sweet Fall Hedgehog Craft uses colorful printable leaves to create the hedgehog’s prickly back. It’s a great companion to our fox craft if you’re planning a fall forest or woodland animal theme.
Mosaic Hedgehog Craft
Our Mosaic Hedgehog Craft combines a cute woodland animal with lots of fine motor practice. Kids glue small pieces of paper onto their hedgehog to create a colorful mosaic effect.
Torn Paper Fall Tree Craft
Little hands get a workout with our Torn Paper Fall Tree Craft! Kids tear colorful paper into small pieces before gluing them onto their tree to create beautiful red, orange and yellow fall foliage.
Torn Paper Acorn Craft
Our Torn Paper Acorn Craft is another easy fine motor activity that’s perfect for fall. Children tear and glue small pieces of paper to create a textured acorn while strengthening their hands and fingers.
Paper Bag Pumpkin Craft
Turn an ordinary lunch bag into an adorable pumpkin with our Paper Bag Pumpkin Craft. It’s a simple cut-and-paste project that’s perfect for pumpkin themes throughout September and October.
Paper Bag Scarecrow Craft
Our Paper Bag Scarecrow Craft is a fun choice for a fall, farm or harvest theme. Kids color, cut, glue and assemble their own cheerful scarecrow using our printable template.
Apple Suncatcher Craft
Our colorful Apple Suncatcher Craft is perfect for decorating classroom or playroom windows during apple season. It’s an easy September craft that works especially well with preschool and kindergarten kids.
Apple Lacing Craft
Practice fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination with our Apple Lacing Craft. Kids lace around their apple to create a fun fall project that’s also excellent pre-writing practice for little hands.
Torn Paper Apple Craft
Our Torn Paper Apple Craft is an easy way to combine an apple theme with fine motor practice. Kids tear red, green or yellow paper into small pieces and glue them onto their printable apple.
Pumpkin Wagon Name Craft
Our Pumpkin Wagon Name Craft combines fall crafting with name recognition and letter practice. Kids build an adorable wagon filled with pumpkins while working with the letters in their own name.
Fall Crafts for Kids
Still looking for ideas? Visit our huge collection of Fall Crafts for Kids for even more easy autumn projects featuring pumpkins, apples, leaves, acorns, woodland animals and plenty of colorful fall fun.
Download the Fingerprint Fox Craft Template
Ready to make your own fingerprint fox craft?
Getting your free printable fox template is easy. Fill out the form at the bottom of this post and click the “Send Me the Printable” button.
After signing up, check your email to confirm your subscription. You will then be redirected to the printable PDF containing all the template.
Already subscribed? No problem! Enter your information in the form again and you’ll be taken directly to the download.
Be sure to print the fingerprint fox craft at actual size on standard 8.5 × 11-inch paper.
Tip: Be sure to check your spam or promotions folder if you don’t see the email right away.
Still having trouble downloading our fingerprint fox craft? Check out this step-by-step download guide with images!
Before You Go
I hope you have as much fun making this fingerprint fox craft as we did!
For more easy kids crafts, free printables and screen-free activities, be sure to follow This Tiny Blue House on Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest so you never miss a new idea.
