A Week of Fall Tree/Leaf Craft Creations for Toddlers & Preschoolers

Our children had some fun creating some Fall tree and leaf crafts last week. These are very simple to make. We used stuff we already had on had with the added bonus of collecting Real leaves just outside our home.

Here are the creations we came up with – one can be made each day to keep a little one busy.

Creation #1

 There are so many leaves falling to the ground now. Just go outside, pick up some pretty leaves, a small piece of fallen branch and you can make this creation. We even collected these beautiful ones at our church – they were so beautiful to pass up. Our kids love collecting these leaves.

Then using a large piece of poster board as a backing, hot-glue the branch to the paper (you can break the branch into smaller pieces for easier gluing). Then strategically place the the leaves to the branch and glue them on. Tacky glue will work and will not burn kids. However, I started to use tack glue and had no patience for the drying so I just went ahead and used the hot-glue. I had one kid carefully place them on the tree.

Creation #2

Use a piece of construction paper as a backing (whatever color – we used light blue to represent the clouds). Using brown construction paper, draw a tree, outline it, then cut it out. Glue  it unto the backing. If you used brown as a backing, you can just draw a tree on the paper. Using tacky glue or a glue that will actually stick to the pom poms, glue them unto the tree for leaves. The kids can even use a green crayon to create a grassy effect at the bottom of the trees.

Creation #3

 As a young kid growing up, I frequently did leaf rubbing. It was so much fun for me to see the outcome of the leaves printed on the paper. I was inspired again to really do some with our kids while we were watching a Baby Channel where they were doing leaf rubbing. We found some of these beautiful leaves outside our home and some at our church.

 To do a leaf rub: Place a real leaf between two sheets of white paper. Or lay a white sheet of paper on a table. Place a real leaf with  the backside or vein side facing up like in the image below. Then lay another sheet of white paper over that leaf. Using a crayon, have your child gently color over the white paper on top. As he/she colors, the design of the leaf will begin to show through.

 I used a black marker to trace an outline of the leaf once the rubbing was done (optional). We also cut them out and made a leaf collage by gluing them on a sheet of construction paper. See below.

And here is the leaf collage with made from the leaves

 Creation #4

We used acrylic paint for this one. I traced out the outline of a tree on a sheet of construction paper. The kids painted the tree brown. Then they dipped their hands in paint and pasted them on the tree for leaves (left side, 3 year old: right side, 21 month old). We also used a paint brush to add some green grass at the bottom.

Creation #5 

Using various acrylic paint colors along with some real apples, this is a fun tree to create. As usual, we used construction paper for a backing. Draw the outline of a tree on the construction paper and have your child paint the tree with brown paint. Pour a different color of paint in different little plates. Cut apples in half and stick a small fork in them (some kids may not need a fork they can hold the apples with their hands). Have your child stamp the apples on the tree for leaves.

 Then let the tree dry. If adding glitter, add it right away before it dries. The glitter makes it very lovely and my kids are huge glitter fans.

 And the last creation we did #6

I downloaded a tree from Microsoft office on line or simple find a Fall tree coloring page online to download. Then we used tacky glue and some fake leaves I had remaining from what I bought last year to create these looks.

These are the trees we created. By the time we go to number 5 or so, one of my kids claimed she was “tired of trees ya’ll). LOL! I understand; I got tired of them, too!

If you are a mom of little ones, what have you been creating with them lately? I always love reading your thoughts in the comments!

She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness (Proverbs 31:27, KJV).