Leaves
You could do this activity with flowers as well.
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Katy is a mom of one who loves art, mystery novels, and anything involving peanut butter–she blogs about raising her little miracle at Bird on the Street.
Today’s post is by Tara of Feels Like Home, Thanks Tara for such a fun fall kids craft !
For weeks, Gracie has been asking me to make a duckie project. We didn’t have any feathers to make the duckie that Allie previously posted, so I had to make something up. Being that it’s fall on the east coast, we had lots of leaves to work with. I decided that we’d crumble the leaves and use them to cover our duckie. This craft goes together really quickly at the end, but it takes a little planning ahead.
1. Go outside and gather lots of leaves. We chose a variety of sizes, shapes, and colors. Of course, while we were outside, we talked about the different trees. We talked about why trees drop their leaves, and how they go to sleep over the winter. It was a lovely science lesson.
2. When you get back inside, spread the leaves out on newspaper to dry. Our leaves were quite wet because we gathered them in the morning, and they took most of a day to really dry out. 
3. Gather the rest of your materials. You’ll need glue, a marker, a piece of construction paper, and a googly eye. We didn’t have a googly eye (a fact that distressed me slightly), so Grace and I raided my button bin for a suitable eye.
Finding an eye was another great lesson. We sorted the buttons into piles by shape – hearts, footballs, flowers, and circles. I didn’t initiate the sorting; I just followed Grace’s lead.
6. Once your materials are all ready, draw a duck on a piece of construction paper. I had a problem with this step. After drawing two mutant squash, I finally got something that resembled a bird. My husband thought it looked more like a turkey than a duck, but you can decide for yourself.
7. Allow your child to smear glue all over the bird, and then help her to tear or crumble the leaves to cover up the glue. While we were working, Grace squealed, This so messy Momma! in the middle of our project. And then she asked for more glue, so I’m pretty sure that messy was a good thing. 
8. Make a beak for your bird using leaves or a scrap of construction paper. I found a cool orange leaf with pointy ends, and I cut off two of the points to use as a beak. I glued the beak on myself.
9. Find two leaf stems that you can use for bird legs. I asked Grace to put some glue on her ducky where his legs would go, and then handed her the legs to stick into the glue.
10. Ask your artist to put some glue on the bird where his eye belongs. Stick the button or googly eye into the glue. (finished turkey photo)
Grace thought that our duck needed some grass to hide in, so she glued a few leaves onto the paper around him.
11. I was going to cut the duck out and put him on a new piece of paper, but we would’ve lost the habitat Grace worked so hard on. 
12. After your duck is dry, hang it on the wall.
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Tara Ziegmont is a mom of 1 and a teacher to many. You can catch up with Tara on her blog Feels Like Home !
- Gather your materials. You will need 2 large leaves with stems, some cardboard, markers, tape, glue and googly eyes.
- Start by drawing a butterfly body on the cardboard.
- Have your child color it – red was the only color he wanted to use today.
- While they are coloring snip the stems off the leaves, don’t loose the stems they will be made into antenna in a bit.
- Cut the body out.
- Tape the antenna on underside of the head.
- Tape the leaves on as wings. Tape works way way better than glue since the leaves can still have some moisture , they can take forever to dry sometimes.
- Glue the googly eyes on add a smile!
Books
“Lucky Leaf” by Kevin O’Malley is a funny book about a boy kicked outside and off his video game by a parent and his quest for a lucky leaf. He waits and waits for the last leaf from a tree to fall, even after his friends give up and go home. The story is cute and my son thought it was funny. I liked the comic book format of the illustrations and the little boy’s dog has some pretty funny facial expressions throughout.
“Autumn : An Alphabet Acrostic” by Steven Schnur is a lovely book that is also a wonderful introduction into this form of poetry for young children. Each page has a poem about the season, from Acorns, to Owls to Pumpkins. Each letter of the words are a jumping off point for a sentence in the poem. The beauty of this book is that it reads well traditionally as well as individual poems which really makes it two books in one.
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- Gather your materials. You will need a grocery bag, ribbon, plain paper, markers, clothes pins, hot glue gun and glue, paint, cookie cutters or other stencils.
- Draw various leaf shapes, either free hand or using stencils.on your grocery bag. Do one for each spot along your garland. I used cookie cutters!
- Using the markers have your child color the leaves, we are doing this as well as painting just for added effect, feel free to skip one.
- Have your child paint the leaves. We are using a sponge to paint, we haven’t sponge painted in a while, but don’t limit yourself use whatever you will most enjoy. Let dry
- While your child is painting , lay 2-4 feet of ribbon face down on your counter, hot glue gun your clothes pins to it. Let dry.
- Cut out ( or have your child if they can use scissors, even if it’s not perfect) the leaves.
- Glue the leaves to the ribbon and clothes pins.
- We aren’t done yet!
Using the same stencil trace the leaf pattern on a stack of plain paper. - Cut out.
- Add things you are thankful for on these pieces of paper from now until Thanksgiving, at dinner you can un clip these and share them. With toddlers ask them what things they think are special, or love.
I am always scrambling to think of what I am thankful for , especially since at that point in the day I just want some wine!
Also this will help teach your children about recognizing all we do have , all we have to be thankful about throughout the whole month not just on Thanksgiving day.
Book!
Thanksgiving is also the day that I don’t big my husband about football one bit. I am so so so not a fan but I am trying not to be so angry while watching, or rather while doing something else while my boys watch. This book – although a board book was really enlightening and my son loved it too! Thanks to my husband’s coworker David who suggested it !
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