Open-ended Nature Art for Kids Inspired by Leaf Man

Leaf art is a wonderful all-natural-materials open-ended nature art activity for kids. It pairs beautifully with Lois Ehlert’s book, Leaf Man.

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Open-ended Nature Art for Kids Inspired by Leaf Man

In Lois Ehlert’s book Leaf Man, the author imagines a leaf’s journey, creating possible sightings along the way with leaves. The art is incredibly creative and fun for children and adults alike. After reading the book together since it was this week’s pick for the Virtual Book Club for Kids, we collected a basket of leaves and created some open-ended nature art of our own. Making the designs on our light table really made them pop!

We were lucky enough to receive this light table as a blog review item a few years ago. They can be quite expensive, but you can make your own using an underbed storage bin and LED battery operated lights. This Crayola tracing pad makes a lovely small light table; you can also buy larger professional tracing tables for less than you would pay for a child’s light table. Be aware that that professional tracing tables may have glass tops and therefore require gentle play; the children’s tables are virtually indestructible and that is where the higher price comes in.

I had expected my kids to make people or animals as they had seen in the book, but they took this project in their own direction. The image at the top of this post is a sun made out of leaves. You can see the center of the sun quite clearly, and differently colored leaves create the rays. Can you see the sun, grassy bank, tree, and leaves floating away down a river in this second photo?

More Leaf-Themed Activities

Here are some more great leaf-themed learning activities to go along with Lois Ehlert’s Leaf Man! Leaves ! Leaves! Leaves! makes a great alternate pick for this theme.

Alphabet Learning Leaf Themed Activities

• Learning About Letters with Leaves & Falling Leaves Song from Kori at Home
• Beginning Sounds Activity: Leaf Sticker Tree from Growing Book by Book
• Letter Recognition Game with Free Leaf Printable from JDaniel4’s Mom

Name Learning Leaf Themed Activities

• Leaf Name Sticky Wall from Inspiration Laboratories
• Learn to Write Your Name with ‘Letter Man’ from Chickadee Lit
• Write Your Name In Leaves from Adventures of Adam

Sensory Learning Leaf Themed Activities

• Fall Loose Parts Sensory Invitation from My Storytime Corner
• Autumn Leaf Auditory Processing Activities from Sugar Aunts
• Make 3D Leaf People from Mama Smiles

Science Learning Leaf Themed Activities

• Preschool Leaf Science Experiment from Preschool Powol Packets
• Simple Preschool Science: Leaf Matching Activity from School Time Snippets
• How to Easily Begin Nature Study with Your Children from Homeschooling in Progress

Colors Learning Leaf Themed Activities

• Giant Colorful Watercolor Fall Leaves for Kids from Toddler Approved
• Basic Math with Fall Leaves for Preschoolers from Views from a Stepstool

Pre-Writing Leaf Themed Activities

• Leaf Art ~ Prewriting Patterns for Fall from Rainy Day Mum
• Leaf Tracing Pre-Writing Activity from Books and Giggles
• Make Leaf Puppets from Messy Little Monster

Movement Leaf Themed Activities

• Number Leaf Scavenger Hunt from The Educators’ Spin On It

Shapes Learning Leaf Themed Activities

• Exploring Leaf Shapes – Nature Walk Activity from To Be a Kid Again
• Leaf Shapes Fingerprint Activity from Artsy Momma

The 2016-17 Virtual Book Club for Kids

Click on the image above to see all of the themes, books, and activities for this year’s 2016-17 Virtual Book Club for Kids! I’ll update the page as new posts go live.

Have you made any open-ended nature art inspired by Leaf Man? Come share an image on my Facebook page, or tag me on Instagram.

MaryAnne Kochenderfer

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MaryAnne is a craft loving educator, musician, photographer, and writer who lives in Silicon Valley with her husband Mike and their four children.