Look what WE did with a leaf!

 

We checked out this fun book from the library and had a great time getting creative with leaves! Look What I Did With a Leaf  by Morteza E. Sohi is an excellent book that teaches about the different types of leaves and the do's and don'ts of creating art with leaves. It even has a field guide to help identify the leaves you collect!

First, we read the book together. Then we went on a walk around our neighborhood and collected all kinds of leaves of different shapes, colors and sizes. We made sure to take the book with us so we would not forget the types of leaves we needed for the animals we really wanted to make. When we got back home we cleaned the leaves that were dirty. Then we got busy! The boys each made the cute little turtles and then they helped me make the butterfly and elephant. All we used were leaves and Elmer's glue.

The book has so many pictures and ideas of other animals you can make. It was a perfect fall activity.

 

 

Falling Leaves ABC Game

You will need: 

Construction Paper

Scissors

marker

Basket

I made 26 leaves by cutting construction paper and wrote upper and lower case letters on each leaf. Then I gave them to my little one and had him throw the leaves and high as he could. He loved that part! He then made sure all the letters were facing up. I would call out a letter and he would put it in our little basket. Then we would talk about what words began with that letter sound. Great game for letter recognition and sound recognition. 

Five Little Pumpkins Free Printable

Found a cute little book here on this website I love! DLTK'S Crafts for Kids has coloring pages, craft ideas, worsheets, etc for Holidays, and teaching. Great resource for early elementary grade levels and toddlers. This is a great little mini book the kids can color and learn the rhyme too. You can also print it out  in color if you'd like. 

Little Pintesters: Acorn painting

 This fun activity was found here as I was browsing Pinterest. 

You will need:

An empty oatmeal canister

construction paper

acorns

paint

 Line the oatmeal canister with your paper and add some dollops of paint to the inside or the canister also. Toss a few acorns inside. Close the lid and shake it up. That's the really fun part!

 I loved that this was a mess free painting activity. I also liked that my 1 and a half year old and my four year old could both do it. I often try to find activities that they can both do so neither of them feels left out. This was PERFECT! It's definitely a do over. My four year old especially liked it. For some reason he is really into collecting acorns and playing with them. Fun, fun, fun, fall activity! This can also be done for other occasions using marbles, similar to this activity we did a while back. 

Score: a big 10!