Following our recent reading of the fabulous It Starts With A Seed (see my full review here) I have wanted to make use of the many sycamore tree leaves and seeds that are littered across our front path and create some autumn leaf art with the children. Today, in between a grumbly Mr H waking and napping and waking again Mr D, Miss E and I popped along the road to gather some seeds and leaves.
When we got back in we re-read out It Start with a Seed book as I wanted to demonstrate to the children just how tiny the seeds are in comparison to what they become.
The children then set about on their autumn leaf art by sticking the seeds to the bottom of their paper and using their paint sticks. I helped them to draw a tree trunk which they then drew branches from and then added the leaves to.
Once they’d finished sticking the leaves on (we used normal PVA glue to glue the leaves in place and it really did the trick) they then got the paint sticks out again to add in some more leaves of differing colours. Mr D added in the sky and some mud for the seed to sit in.
We also had a chat about the veins in the leaves and talked about what the purpose of them were as well as then taking a look at our own hands which was a nice and unexpected little learning opportunity.
This was an easy activity to do and kept the children engaged as well as going some way to helping to demonstrate how the smallest of seeds grow the tallest of trees.
Whilst the children’s art work isn’t going to win any awards they were proud of their creations and were able to talk me through everything they’d put onto the page.
Some ways to extend this autumn leaf art activity include:
- Organizing the leaves by colour, talking about how they change from green, to yellow etc as they fall from the tree
- We collected a range of leaves – my intention was to look at them on a tree identification chart and get the children to match them up but Mr H was far too grumbly to let me get on with this today.
- Leaf rubbings using wax crayons would be a lovely and different way to add leaves to the trees
- Link the tree art to the animals in the It Starts with a Seed book and introduce ideas about animals that hibernate
realsloah says
I saw paint sticks at the Childcare Expo; nice to see them in the wild – I’m really tempted to buy some, as they seem so much less messy than regular tempura paint. Great tree pictures! x
Sarah Doyle says
They are good fun and something different to use too. They’re much cleaner to use than paint (which is always a bonus for a late afternoon crafting session) x
Emma says
I love the leaf trees! Such a fun little craft for children. We collected loads of leaves the other day, so will have to give this a go.
Sarah Doyle says
thank you – they certainly enjoyed it x
Lyndsey O'Halloran says
Aww, this is a lovely thing to do with the kids! Nice and easy too.
Elizabeth says
What a wonderful craft project for this time of year! Very creative 🙂
clairejustine says
Aww, these look great. What a lovely idea 🙂
motherhoodtherealdeal says
Can’t go wrong with a bit of autumn leaf art and it’s a great way of getting the littles to connect with nature over the colder months.
Hannah - Budding Smiles says
What a lovely idea! I’d love to make the most of the autumnal nature and do some crafty stuff with Toby xx
Gill C says
This looks like brilliant fun! I saw a really great leaf craft on Pinterest where they sewed leaves. Need to go to the park to get suppplies…
fashionandstylepolice says
This looks like creative fun. Will try this with the kids.
Anosa says
Aww what a lovely activity to do with the kids, I want to try with my nephew
Leandra Bramham says
Lovely craft for Autumn, great way to display those nature hunt finds! X