Use this free printable leaf colouring page as an easy autumn art project to explore pens, paints, pastels and pattens.
Printable leaf colouring sheet easy autumn art project
In this autumn art project children are invited to use outlines of leaves to explore a variety of art materials, colours, and patterns.
The leaf outlines are hand-drawn from real leaves, including oak, horse chestnut and beach.
The colouring page offers and simple prompt for children of all ages and allows them to customise the page as they wish, exploring pens, paints and pastels, and using a variety of techniques and patterns.
For more forest school activities, you can download The Forest Classroom kit here.
Ready-made forest school lesson plans
Have you got your copy of The Forest Classroom yet? It is the perfect beginner’s guide to running a successful forest school. Download your forest school guide here.
A forest classroom is a place of adventure, discovery, and imagination. It can also be a wonderful place to learn about math and science, explore art and crafts, and develop language and social skills.
The Forest Classroom is a practical guide which will show you how to engage your children in fun and educational forest-school activities.
These ready-made forest school lesson plans are suitable for forest school leaders, teachers, childcarers and parents with children aged 4 to 10, to learn in a forest, school nature area, local park or your own backyard.
Get your copy of The Forest Classroom here and you’ll be ready to head straight outdoors and enjoy teaching, using our ready-made lesson plans.
Materials needed
:: leaf colouring page (see below)
:: your choice of coloured pens, metallic pens, paints, oil pastels and / or crayons
Print the leaf colour page (see below) and set it out with a selection of pens, pastels or paints and invite your children to add colour and pattern to the leaves.
Five ways to use these colouring sheets:
1 :: Colour them in. Colouring can be a calming, mindful activity. You could try pencils, pens, or oil pastels.
2 :: Use Zentangle® Method, filling each leaf with a different geometric pattern. Fine marker pens are better for patterning.
3 :: Watercolour them. First paint each leaf with water, then use watercolour paints in green, red, orange, yellow and brown to add colour on top of the water. This ‘wet on wet’ technique produces unique, gorgeous colour blends. You could also use a wax crayon or oil pastel to draw veins on each leaf, then paint with watercolours over the top. Notice how the wax/oil resists the paint and how your veins stand out.
4 :: Scavenger hunt them. Take your printable out on a nature walk in your neighbourhood or nearby park or woods and see if you can find some leaves that match the shapes on the chart. Do you know the name of the tree each leaf comes from? You could look them up in a nature guide book. Are the leaves in your area different? You could make your own leaf sketches.
5 :: Colour match. Bring home some leaves from your nature walk, choosing leaves in a range of autumn shades. Can you colour your leaves so that they match the real leaves you have gathered?
Download the complete autumn teaching kit
Reclaim your Sundays with our all-planned and prepped teaching kit. The Seasons School Autumn Curriculum gives you everything you need for autumn learning, all in one place.
With 75 engaging activities and 50 pages of printables to make teaching so easy, it’s the go-to resource for autumn.
Click here to see more and get your Autumn Teaching Kit.
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M Smith says
I’m interested in your free printables!
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Follow the links to get them! 🙂
Arun says
Please can I have the free printables. Thank you
Cathy James says
Yes Arun. Please use the link to access the free printables.