We love fall leaf crafts! Anything that combines a dash of the outdoors, a splash of colourful printing and a bit of playful learning is all good with us. We’re going to be using this autumn word tree for lots of different word games over the coming weeks – here’s how to make one.
Fall leaf crafts :: autumn word tree
There are some activities that are absolute classics and every child should try, and I think autumn leaf printing is one of them. It’s such a sensory delight! Children are learning about the changing of the seasons, playing with natural, sensory materials, and creating gorgeous art – all with just a few leaves gathered on a nature walk.
We like to use a really big roll of paper for our leaf prints, so we can all work together and make lots and lots of them. We used our kitchen table and I set out a roll of decorators’ lining paper and some plates of paint.
Combining a few colours on each plate gives a great effect when you print from them. And we added some glitter glue because… well, you don’t need a reason for a bit of sparkle, do you?
We’d gathered some leaves on our walk that morning – lots of different shapes and showing the first signs of the changing season.
Then it was time to print. Don’t the leaves look glorious? I think we might repeat this on fabric rather than paper, so we can make a table cloth.
This time though, I had other plans for all those leaves. We’re working on learning lots of high-frequency / sight words at the moment and I wanted the leaves to become our word wall for this season. Well, a word tree actually.
We cut out the leaves, and popped a sticker on each one, with one of our spelling words written on it. Then I put a little piece of magnetic sticky strip on the back of the leaves, turning each one into a fridge magnet. {When I started I thought it might take an age to do the cutting out, word sticker, magnet thing for every single leaf, but actually it was really quite quick and easy.}
Then we made a tree trunk for our fridge door, and stuck on all the leaves, making ourselves a work-of-art word tree, that looks gorgeous, and which we’ll use time and time again for all sorts of word games over the next couple of months.
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Beautiful craft!
Thank you Maro!
How did you make the trunk? Love this project for my daycare kids!
Hi moriah. I just cut out the shape from a sheet of gift wrap and stuck it to the fridge door with Blue-tac. It’s cut in half so I can still open the fridge and freezer doors!!
Great activity! Have you read Rocket Wrotes a Story?
No Marie, I’ve not heard of that. I’ll go check it out.
Can I ask what time of paint you used or what works best?
(for the Autumn Word Tree/Fall Leaf)
Hi Susan, we used what we call poster paint, but perhaps is better know as tempera. It’s a water-based, ‘craft’ paint.
This is a lovely craft I will use with my pre-school children , we could write each child’s name on a leaf and see if anyone can spot their name.
Thank-you
Lisa
That’s a great idea Lisa.
Hi! Thank you so much for this great activity! Would it be okay for me to include this in a round-up blog post I am working on that is specifically about learning sight words with leaf activities? (Permission to link to your site and possibly use one of the images to show your activity?) I would be so honored, and of course I would leave a link to this page giving you credit to tell people where it came from! 🙂
Hi Amy. Yes, you’re welcome to use one photo so long as you link back here so people can see the original idea. Thanks!