Leaf Rubbing Tree

Fall is in full swing around here. Between the pumpkins creeping up on porches in my neighborhood to the bursts of red, yellow and orange everywhere, I had to make a leaf rubbing craft. I have to be honest my son was only kinda into this leaf rubbing tree craft. He liked doing the rubbing the first few times. Then after that, the only thing he wanted to do was be the tape guy! We often put a craft down and return to it at our leisure, or sometimes ditch it forever. Forcing kids to do art defeats the purpose no one is creative or learning when they are forced to do anything.

Leaf Rubbing Tree

1. Gather your materials. You will need a paper towel roll, some white paper, scissors, tape, crayons in fall colors with the paper removed, and leaves from your garden.
2. Start by going outside and finding some fun leaves, bringing them in and pat them dry if needed.
3. Place the leaves vein side up under a piece of paper. For my son, I taped the leaves to paper so they wouldn’t shift when he was trying to do the rubbing. This is where I lost him. After one exposure to the tape and then, tape was all he wanted to do.
4. Rub your crayons over the paper and watch the magic leaf appear! You can see I still had to hold his paper steady.
5. Cut them out as you go.
6. Time to tape. We used tape because it would be very tricky to glue with white glue and our glue stick was MIA. A glue stick would work nicely as long as you glued it horizontally and waited until it was dry to stand it up. 
7. Attach all the leaves and stand up your leaf rubbing tree!

Books About Leaves

Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert was the inspiration for this craft and will leave you trying to find all sorts of things like butterflies, chickens, and fish in leaf piles. The book is about a leaf man who blows away in the wind. The reader is taken past all sorts of animals like chickens and ducks, past rivers filled with fish and butterflies in the air. All are leaves pieced together to make these awesome images. Some are obvious, while some take concentration to see the animal among the leaves. Wonderful creative book to welcome the changing seasons.

Leaf Jumpers by Carole Gerber is a beautifully illustrated, informative book that is all about leaves in autumn. It’s not the most exciting book but is a good teaching resource and tool when you are teaching your child about the changing seasons.  I can’t say this is a must read, but it’s useful and worth a look at your local library. It will probably make you and your children want to jump in a few giant piles of leaves!

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. The little boy’s dog has some pretty funny facial expressions throughout.