Leaf Rubbing Placemats

C and R did not have school today, and we had absolutely gorgeous weather!  We spent some time outside enjoying the day, and the kids picked up some leaves for this project.

They began by taping leaves all over a piece of paper.

Then, they placed another piece of paper on top and used the side of crayons to create leaf rubbings.

Once they were done, I covered the paper with clear contact paper to create placemats.

Watercolor and Glue Leaves

C and R made more leaves to decorate our kitchen.

While they were in school, I cut leaf shapes out of coffee filters (I love using coffee filters for art projects!).

I created "veins" on each "leaf" with my glue gun.

When C and R came home, they painted the "leaves" with Faber-Castell watercolors.

R painted very colorful leaves.

These were painted by C, the traditionalist.

We followed this with the book, Count Down to Fall by Fran Hawk.  Count down from ten to one with facts about different trees.  We own this book, and it is a must read every fall.

I just have to show you 0ur sliding glass door; it is full of great projects right now!

*The idea for this art project came from Having Fun at Home.

Autumn Leaves - Sun Catchers

After C made the sun catcher planets, I told R that I would help her make autumn leaves using the same technique.

She used the sharpener over wax paper to get a lot of tiny red and yellow crayon pieces.  I helped when she got tired of sharpening.

Then, we placed another piece of wax paper over the crayon pieces, covered that with an old towel, and used a warm iron to melt the pieces together by just ironing over the towel.

We both cut leaf shapes out of the melted crayon/ wax paper "sandwich" and taped them to the door.

They look great when the sun shines through them!

At bedtime, we read Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf by Lois Ehlert.  The book tells the story of a sugar maple tree and the child who planted it.  We love the textual collages created by Ehlert.

Autumn Trees

I hosted story hour at the coffee shop recently and the theme of the hour was leaves.  Usually, I read a few books and then we do a craft, but this time we mixed things up a bit.

I had prepared paper towel tubes by making a few cuts on both ends.  The children painted the tubes brown to look like trees and we left them to dry a bit while we enjoyed a few books.

I read, Fall Leaves Fall by Zoe Hall, Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert, and Count Down to Fall by Fran Hawk.  I recommend all three of these books.  They are great for fall.  The first two books both encourage using real leaves to create pictures, but we had a week of rainy weather so I decided to go a different route with the craft. 

After enjoying the books, the children glued the "trees" and some "leaves" to a piece of paper.  They also glued the "leaves" to the "branches" of the trees. 

Unfortunately, I forgot my camera this week.  It would have been nice to get a picture of all of the trees together.  I was so impressed with the trees made by three, four, and five year old children.  They all did a great job!  The tree in the photo above is the one R made.

The "leaves" we used for this craft came from Dollar Tree.  A bag of 150 leaves is only $1.00!  What a bargain!

Thank you to 1+1+1=1 for this fun and beautiful craft idea!

Fletcher and the Falling Leaves

We are big fans of Fletcher.  Every autumn, we read Fletcher and the Falling Leaves by Julia Rawlinson, and every spring we read Fletcher and the Springtime Blossoms.  He is such a cute, naive little fox.  In this book, it is autumn and Fletcher is worried about the changes occurring to his favorite tree.  He tries to help the tree by gathering all of the fallen leaves and putting them back on the branches, but just can't keep up with the wind.  In the end, Fletcher receives a wonderful winter surprise when his tree is more beautiful than ever.

This is a wonderful book.  C and R really like the illustrations, especially the last shiny, glittery page!

C and R made their own autumn trees with falling leaves.  They used paintbrushes to make trees and then finger painted the leaves.  C's art is on the left and R's is on the right.

We are ahead of the season a bit because our leaves are only just beginning to turn (barely - only a few scattered trees around town), but autumn leaves are so pretty.  Let's just call this a foreshadowing of what is just around the corner!