Falling Leaves

Fall into fall with this fun project for toddlers. This morning I had a great group of kids at the OKCMOA ages 15 months-3years. We gathered around and talked about changing leaves. We looked at autumn trees in a book and read a story. We learned leaves come in many colors and shapes. In the gallery our magic color was red.



Each workstation was set up with white paper and tree trunks. I pre-cut the trunks. They are simple...big Y's. Each little student used a glue stick to apply their trees.



For a fun way to give our leaves different shapes we used foam stamps. These are the sticker kind and I put them on the end of a glue stick to make it easy for little hands to stamp. If I had though of it earlier I would have cut small wood blocks. Oh well, another day!






I gave the kids one color at a time. First we used green. stamp, stamp, stamp!



Then yellow, orange, red and brown. Some of us even got our hands involved! Great fun today. Happy fall!

For this project you will need:
-white paper
-brown construction paper
-scissors
-foam shapes with sticker back
-glue sticks
-object for foam stickers (ie, glue stick, block, corks)

Warm Colors

The weather is changing and so are the leaves. This project is geared for children ages 2-5. This is part of the OKCMOA's new program called Tiny Tuesdays. This day we painted. I supplied the children with a warm color paint palette. We used red, yellow and orange. No rules, just fun!



Sometimes I like to give kids different items to paint with. This day we used feathers, brushes, sponges and q-tips.



With our sleeves rolled up and aprons on they were ready to use their tools and hands too!



I set up a glitter station for those that wanted to add some sparkle when they were finished. Happy, busy kids!





You will need:
-heavy paper. We used tagboard
-variety of brushes and tools: brushes, q-tips, sponges, feathers and more.
-paint. I use Crayola washable tempera
-glitter optional

Warhol Fall

For a day of Drop in Art fun we focused on repetition and color drawing inspiration from Andy Warhol. I had the kids think of one fall item and it had to be something simple enough to draw several times.



These examples have 9 drawings, but they could be done in in any number combination. We used black marker to divide our paper into sections and then we drew that one item in each section. We used oil pastels to fill in the areas. It was fun for the kids and parents to use oil pastels. Many commented on how much they liked them and that they had never used oil pastel before.



You will need:
-white paper any size
-black marker
-pencil (optional to lightly sketch first)
-ruler (optional)
-oil pastels

Fall Finger Leaves

In this fun class for ages 15-36 months we focused on the beginning of fall. We looked at a few books and talked about trees and how the color of the leaves are going to start changing.
I had wanted Lois Ehlert's Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf but all copies were checked out of ALL local libraries! I ordered it from Amazon so I will have it for our collection here at the house. I really enjoy all of Ehlert's books, so do my boys.

We talked about trees, fall colors and found them in the museum. In the class we rolled up our sleeves to create our own Ode to Fall-via fingertips, paint, glue and paper. We glued the brown strips to make trunks and used our fingers and hands to create fall foliage. (Getting hands in paint is a great sensory building experience.)



You will need:
-14x11 piece of student grade watercolor paper
-strips of brown construction paper
-red, yellow, orange washable paint
-glue

While our pieces dried we sang a little song to movement: (tune of London Bridge)

autumn leaves are falling down,
falling down,
falling down

autumn leaves are falling down,
red,
gold,
and brown.

So much fun!