Dear StrongStart friends,

Please CLICK HERE to hear me reading a book called “Leaf Man” written by Lois Ehlert, published by Harcourt Inc. Hope it will inspire your and your child’s imagination to see (and make) Leaf Man around you.

Fall provides us with many treasures you and your child can collect. Here are some examples I collected: a variety of pinecones, chestnuts,  twigs, bark, leaves of many shape or colours, acorns , maple seeds, and dried flowers (the ones I have are Allium flowers from our StrongStart planter). Along with some rocks found or bought at a dollar store (just like the ones you see) you have a bounty of materials for sensory and creative play. Let children touch and feel the textures of natural objects, by giving them the words to describe these objects you will be expanding their vocabulary but also helping them be in touch with nature. There are so many ways you and your child can have a marvelous time together using these materials in many creative ways.

Before putting these items away, make sure anything you collected from outside is dry and it will last you a long time. Please always be careful as smaller items are a choking hazard so always be with your child when using these items. Be creative,  creativity is like a muscle that more you use it the stronger it gets!

I got inspired by Leaf Man to be creative with my fall materials. Here is my ” surprised” Leaf Man. The hair is made from maple tree seeds and the mouth out of a big rock I found in front of our centre.

Of course, everyone will make their own creations. Acorn caps made wonderful eyes and short stalks of Allium made his hair.

I used the paper bag to create another leaf man. I used some cedar branches and chestnut. If you and your child want to create a puppet, you can use other flat materials (other than the rocks and chestnuts I used this time).

Here are the twigs and bark again along with some leaves and acorns.

You can also collect leaves of all shapes, colours and sizes. What a wonderful opportunity to teach your child about how to appreciate different trees that have been around here for many, many years: maple, oak. birch, elm, poplar, and horse chestnut trees. In my childhood, we used to press the leaves of trees in our neighbourhoods between pages of a fat book. Once dried and flat, we would tape them in a notebook with names written for revisiting and enjoying later. Here is another way you can enjoy the variety of colours and shapes in your home. Use clear self-adhesive (sticky) MacTack. It is found in Dollar Store or some grocery or hardware stores where they sell the items for lining the shelves. Enjoy sticking the leaves to the surface, and when you are done put it somewhere where you can enjoy a leaf collage for a long time.

Happy collecting and creating!

Ms. Lillian