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Best Fall Crafts for Kids
Published 11.06.2007 | Permanent Link | Comments (2)
I am late with my Tuesday entry because we had a little trip this weekend, the first time I've gone away with my husband on an airplane to stay in a hotel in seven years. The trip tried to kill me because it centered around running and then recovering from the running. This is exactly what I had in mind for my first trip to a city without kids with my husband in four years. Only not at all.
As I type this my husband is overhead trying to run a Cub Scout meeting with six very happy, spastic and lovable little boys working on a leaf craft. They're using leaves they found in their yards and leaves my husband and I grabbed in Central Park over the weekend. The boys, they don't care about the leaves we got from Central Park. They could come from my driveway and the kids would care just about as much.
However the boy's leaf craft got me looking for great craft projects for kids using leaves, especially those of the autumnal variety.
Martha walks you through a leaf finding trip through the woods, or your local park. Either one. This reminds me how much kids love this kind of nature hunt, I'd forgotten what an easy activity it was until the kids and I searched a local park for things to make sun prints with my kids this summer. This is a handy guide to searching for and naming leaves.
Now, what do you do with those leaves once you've collected them?
I love this leaf bowl, perfect as a centerpiece for your Thanksgiving dinner. Collect your leaves, follow their directions for preserving them, attach them to a margarine bowl with a little Modge Podge goodness and your kid has a one of a kind bowl. Get him to make 30 more and you've got another source of income. Except for those pesky child labor laws.
I love the ideas over here, they're lacking pictures but they're very simple and seem easy enough to pull off. Sometimes we forget how easy kids are entertained by the most simple projects. I just listened as a group of 6 very loud boys were silenced by the simple process of making rubbings of leaves, for at least fifteen unbelievable minutes.
Kiddley, purveyor of awesome ideas, has this awesome idea to use leaves to create pictures. These images remind me of potato print art, my kids would probably need some inspiration to really grasp the concept. But I can see them creating really nice artwork from the leaves in our yard. An oak leaf cut in half becomes a hedgehog, a maple leaf upside down becomes a hula skirt for a drawn hula dancer.
Do you have fall leaves? Do you have a favorite fall leaf project? Please share your especially easy ones in the comments.
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About
Melissa Summers was one of five Melissa's throughout her schooling, in her everyday life she is the only Melissa who folds laundry. The name Melissa is derived from the Greek word for Honeybee. The Buzz Off is published weekly on Tuesdays. She writes almost nearly everyday at Suburban Bliss.
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Melissa's Buzz Off is a collection of pretty much anything Melissa wants to buzz about. Sometimes what she wants to buzz about is also what you'd like to buzz about. The Buzz Off is a collaboration so you can tell her anything at You can email me at melissabuzzoff@gmail.com
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Comments (2):
mary said:
I can still remember my Kindergarten leaf project...put leaves between two pieces of wax paper, slip the waxed paper and leaves inside a paper bag and iron. Remove leaves now encased in waxed paper. Voila...placemat. (No, I wasn't allowed to iron in Kindergarten.)
I read recently that you can keep a leaf in color by microwaving it. Then paint a sealer on it and your leaf will not turn brown. Who knew?
Posted on November 7, 2007 20:45
mary said:
I did it again...I should have read the link you posted before commenting...they suggested the waxed paper trick. Doh.
Posted on November 7, 2007 22:03