Crumble dried fall leaves and pull flower petals, then sprinkle them like glitter over shapes painted with watered-down glue on construction paper. A simple, open-ended, low-cost fall art project.
Supervise young children so they don't put crumbled leaves, petals or glue in their mouths.
Collect only leaves and petals from plants you know are safe to handle. Skip anything you can't identify.
Wash hands after handling yard leaves, petals and glue.
Before the kids arrive
Gather leaves (and petals) from the yard, or plan to collect them with the kids as part of the activity.
Steps
Collect a bag of dried leaves from the yard.
Crumble the leaves into tiny bits. Stomping on the bag is a fun way to do it.
Pull some petals off a flower and put them in a bucket.
Adult: mix a little water into the glue so it's easier to paint with.
Paint a shape on construction paper with the glue, like a face or an apple.
Sprinkle the crumbled leaves over the glue.
On another sheet, press flower petals onto the glue shape.
Set the art aside to dry, then shake off the extra bits.
Tips
It's such an open-ended art project that it's up to the kid to make it as simple or as complex as they like. Each kid uses their own imagination for the outline.from the author
Big S found a fun way to crumble the leaves: stomping on the bag.from the author
While collecting leaves, talk to your child about the season, what happens to the leaves and why you are collecting them. That could steer them towards collecting leaves of varying colors.from the author
Replacing all that glitter with leaves and petals from our yard made it a simple and pocket-friendly project.from the author
Make it your own
Use flower petals instead of leaves for a brighter picture.
Collect leaves of varying colors for a more colorful picture.
Extend it to fit the needs of your toddler or preschooler.
The story behind it
By TurkeyMom · November 2012
Fallen leaves are everywhere, and raking and bagging them is such a chore. We took a break from our yard work and got a bit crafty with the leaves we bagged.
She collected a bag of dried leaves and crumbled them up to make powdered leaves. She found a fun way to crumble them, you can already tell, right?
She also took some petals from a dahlia flower to use in her fall art. Now off to making something with our goods.
I set out construction paper and she painted on it with glue. I mixed a little water into it to make it a bit loose, so it's easier to paint with.
She made a face on one and an apple on the other. Right here, each kid will use his or her own imagination while creating an outline.
The next part is pretty simple: add the crumbled leaves on the glue and set it aside to dry. Shake off the excess and you have an interesting fall art.
Here are our leaves working as glitter in our fall art. It is definitely up to the kid to make it as simple or as complex as possible.
Now for the petals. Add them on the glue outline, set it aside to dry, then shake off the excess.
Replacing all that glitter with leaves and petals from our yard made it a simple and pocket friendly project. You can extend it to fit your toddler or preschooler.
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