Here is a couple of simple ideas for fun art activities with leaves you can do with your child.

  • Rubbing leaves. Put the leaves on a flat suffice (the rough side up, smooth side down) and put a piece of paper on top. Then use some fat crayons and rub them on the suffice of the paper. The leaf lines will start showing up. What a great opportunity to talk about the way leaves get their “food”.
  • Painting with leaves. I used also some long leaves from our corn and a tray (to catch some artistic splatter for easy clean-up).

Adding objects from nature to your playdough is always fun and if you add few dollar store animals (in this case dinousaurs), your children will stay focused and enjoy their play for a long time. In addition to twigs and leaves, I also added some cinnamon sticks!

Here is one recipe for the playdough we make in our StrongStart all the time. You can find Cream of Tartar and food colouring in the baking section in your grocery store.

It is chestnut season! With a permanent marker you can turn free chestnuts into “learning” material.  Children can line them up to arrange the  ABC’s. They can find the letters of their name, mom’s name, sister or brother’s name. You can make upper case (big letters) and lower case (small letters) chestnuts  and get your child to match them together.

Children will enjoy a sensory invitations with natural objects: searching, collecting  sifting the dollar store ABC beads and letter chestnuts in a tray full of corn meal or salt or rice.

 

Here is a deep tub with wooden chips with some chestnuts and acorns, three-tier fruit tray and plastic pet scoops (unused, of course) for interesting sensory play. Flex your imagination “muscle” and use what you find in your home: slotted spoons, tongs, sifters. Beans and lentils can replace the wood chips and they can be re-used later.

 

As always, feel free to send me your pictures by e-mail, enjoy!

Ms. Lillian