I love all the beautiful colors God has surrounded us with! Especially in spring and fall when new life is budding, or when they’re changing colors in preparation for the coming winter.
One of our favorite activities to do is crafts with leaves.
As soon as we see fun colors outside the kids start begging to go out and collect things.
I’m still not sure which part is more fun, the gathering, or the creating…maybe both.
I always love to watch Tinker Bell do her gathering. She’s always very specific. The other kids fill their buckets with all kinds of choices, but not Tinker Bell. She usually has something in mind, and only gathers exactly what she needs for her project.
The other thing I love to see are kids working together for a common goal. No selfishness, just fun.
Once we get back in the house, we dump our leaves all over the table. I know, I promise it will clean up, just go with it. I suggest making your own design, it’ll makes the mess a little easier to take!
Then I pull out the clear contact paper and cut two identical size sheets for each child.
Pull off the backing and tape one of the sheets sticky side up on your table. Add your leaves to the sticky side, be careful here, its hard to move them once they’re stuck down!
When you’re all done, stick the other sheet to your leaves to secure them in place. This also helps preserve your project! I’m not exactly sure how long they’ll last this way, but we still have some from last year that look good!
Here are some of our creations….I think this is either a bird, or maybe a sea turtle.
A lovely tree…
An elephant…
And finally Tinker Bell’s creation, Jesus and Tinker Bell.
And some pretty flowers…
After they were all done, we stuck them in the window to show them off for a few days.
I hope you have some time this year to venture outside and do a little leaf art work yourself! It’s easy, fun, and really cheap!
P.S. You don’t even have to go get clear contact paper, you can just glue your leaves to plain paper too, just don’t plan on saving them too long. The leaves will eventually dry and crumble leaving a nice mess in your school room. I speak from experience here.
I love this creative activity. Would do this with my girl 🙂
I love reading your blog. You give me all kinds of ideas to use with my own kids.
I just recently started my own a couple of weeks ago and have been using your blog planner to keep everything straight. I added your button on my site, as well as a couple of links in a post that will be coming out Tuesday with a recipe and talking about your blog planner. I’d be honored if you’d check out my blog and possibly consider me for your list of blogs you love.
Thanks!
Julia
What a great idea! Our oldest (6 yrs) loves to create and is always looking for something new and different to make. We’re definitely going to give this one a try. Thanks for the great tips.
totally adorable!
and the tinkerbell and Jesus is so precious
Those are SO creative! I especially love the elephant (I collect them) and, of course, Tinker Bell!
I was just popping in to ask you to vote for my Magical Mouse Schoolhouse on the Circle of Moms contest. I learned about the contest just last week and am trying to make up for lost ground. Already up to #33, but the competition is fierce near the top, lol! Anyway, I’ve been voting for you each day, and I’d love it if you could give me a nudge. Thank you so much!
I hope you and your family have a wonderful Father’s Day!
Love the elephant! Such a great idea. 🙂
Everyone was so creative, especially Tinker Bell! We will definitely have to try this as we have an assortment of leaves come Fall time.
Amazing how wonderfully talented! I am really impressed with the very cool creations the kids came up with using leaves. I can’t wait to try this with my own and maybe a few others!
What a beautifully creative idea. I’m definitely going to try this with my boys. Thanks for sharing.