Leaves, leaves, and more leaves

Leaf Project

Winter is just around the corner so before it's too late, I wanted to share a fun Autumn project that kids love.

I picked up hundreds of leaves for this project but I had to wait until most of the leaves had fallen from the trees, that way I had more color variety and I didn't hurt any trees. :-)

Once I got home after a long afternoon of picking leaves, I rinsed (too much mud) and dried the leaves using paper towels. Once that was done, I neatly placed them on old magazine pages and newspaper articles and then placed books on top of them. I let them sit there for about a day or two depending on the size of the leaves. The bigger ones took longer to fully dry. This step is important if you want nice flat leaves instead of hard-to-glue leaves with ends that stick up. 

Here is a tip: If you are planning on transporting your leaves, really make sure they are completely dry before packing them up. If they aren't, they will stick together and mold will form.

Now onto the fun part.

I had a lot of fun with this and so did my students (7-10 yrs). Before glueing, you want to lay out the leaves you plan on using just to make sure you have enough room on the page. I used liquid glue and not a gluestick. Then I let the leaves dry overnight to make sure no glue was left undry (it was cold in the room). The next day I applied a gloss all over the page in order to protect the leaves and add a nice glossy finish. And there you have it!

Here are some of the children's creations:

Let me know what you think of this project, but before you go, here's a little riddle: What did one autumn leaf say to the other?

Answer: I'm falling for you! 

Thank you for visiting, until next time! :)