What can you do with a leaf? A lot, actually! Here, the leaves are changing colors and they are just beginning to fall to the ground. Now is the time to make leaf crafts with your preschooler or to press the colorful leaves to save them for crafts later in the fall.
The first step to making a leaf part is perhaps the most fun – the collecting! Go on a leaf hunt around your neighborhood. Look for maple, oak, and magnolia trees in particular. In our area, these ones have the most diverse and brilliant colors – reds, oranges, yellows and greens, all on the same leaf. For some crafts, you can use fresh leaves. For others, you’ll want leaves that have been pressed.
What can you do with a fresh leaf? Leafy crowns are great preschool accessories. Use glue to attach fresh and colorful leaves to a strip of paper that you’ve stapled together to make a crown. Add small cones and needles and other items from the outdoors, and your preschooler can be a nature king or queen.
Fresh leaves also make great boats. If it’s raining, gather up some leaves and poke the base through the long part of the leaf to bring the sides together. This will help the boat float. Add another leaf for a sail if you wish, then set the boat free on a local puddle. Blow the boat or create giant waves to see if you can push it forward!
It’s fairly simple to make a basic leaf press. Take two pieces of corrugated cardboard and several similar-sized pieces of newspaper. Put the leaves inside the newspaper, and lay them flat. Use the cardboard as a sandwich on the top and the bottom of the cardboard. Press the whole thing together with a bungee cord, large elastic band, or a zip tie.
What can you make with a pressed leaf? For Thanksgiving, get some mac tac or a cold laminator if you have one and create leafy place mats. Glue the leaves to a piece of paper, then press them under a layer of mac tac. This creates place mats that will last for many years. If you’d like, put your child’s name, age, and hand print on the back so that he can look back at the placemats for years to come.
You can also use pressed leaves to make a fall centerpiece for the table.
One of my favorite centerpieces is a decorated pumpkin or a miniature person. The pumpkin is good for families with toddlers. Choose a small, round pumpkin and put glue all over the pumpkin. Then decorate it all over with fall leaves to make a leafy globe in the center of the table! Add a head to the pumpkin to make the globe into a Thanksgiving turkey.
You can also use leaves to make decorative dolls for the fall. Stuff an old nylon stocking for the head and stick it into a paper towel tube that has been cut in half. Glue dried leaves around the paper towel tube to make a fall doll with a leafy dress. You may also want to glue leaves on the nylon stocking to make hair.
What kinds of fall crafts are you doing with your preschooler this year?