Leaf Characters

Fall is just starting to make an appearance here in central TX, but nonetheless we're feeling the spirit of Autumn. We've taken many nature walks in hopes of seeing some colorful leaves. We've been happy to find some reds and yellows, and hopefully as it gets cooler, we'll see some more.

BOOKS: Lois Elhert's Leaf Man really inspired us this year! The creative way in which she lays out the leaves as illustrations is really beautiful. After reading this book, we just had to try to make our own leaf characters. We also enjoyed reading Elhert's Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf. And Fall Leaves Fall! by Zoe Hall is also a really nice book for preschoolers about this season and the best part of fallen leaves -- jumping in them!
ACTIVITY: Leaf Characters
Leaf Man really inspired us to create. We started by making a leaf man, and then we made a cute leaf butterfly. I am sure that we'll be making many more leaf characters before the season ends.Basically, all we did was collect our leaves, and then lay them out in different styles until we were happy with the look of our "man". My son then glued the leaves down on construction paper.For the butterfly, my son glued down the leaves as wings, and I cut the body out of construction paper. Simple and cute.

Leaves Are a FALLing

Fall here in the South Central U.S. is not like it was for me growing up on the East Coast. The weather is still warm and mild. But the leaves have been falling from the trees recently (October), and that prompted this cute inquiry from my two-year-old when he picked up a brown leaf -- "Oh, no," he said. "This leaf fell down!" He then looked up at the tree, and sadly said, "I don't know how to get it back up there." That began our first discussion about autumn.

BOOKS: We enjoyed Oliver Finds His Way by Phyllis Root about a bear cub chasing after a leaf into the woods. And we also have Leaves by David Ezra Stein that works well with the autumn season.
ACTIVITY: We've been picking up interesting leaves on our walks these days and collecting them in a bucket on the font porch. So we just reached into our leaf bucket and got out the tempera paint. We started by doing leaf stamp prints, by just painting the leaves and pressing them onto construction paper. But then my son had so much fun just painting the leaves that that became the longer activity.