Thursday, October 07, 2010

Leaves - stART (story+ART = stART)

I love this time of year....Lots of fun and cute stuff to make and do.  We've been doing alot of things with leaves lately (as you know from my leaf cookies and fall fingerpainting posts).  Because of this, I headed to the library in search of some fun books about leaves. 


I found Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf by Lois Ehlert.  This book explains how a maple tree is born and grown from seeds in the woods.  And then transplanted and taken to a nursery, where it is then packaged and sold to a little boy's family.  They plant the tree and the little boy likes to watch it grow, but his favorite is when the leaves change color every year.  It's an easy to read book and explains the process in simple terms for kids to understand. 

We also read We're Going on a Leaf Hunt by Steve Metzger.  It has the same concept as the bear hunt book, only they go looking for leaves.  Nathan loved the bear hunt song and book that he heard during Kindergarten Club this summer, so when I saw this book I knew we had to read it.

Another book we read was Seasons Fall by Ann Herriges.  It's a book about all the fun things that happen during the fall season.....leaves changing colors, birds flying south, animals getting ready for winter, harvesting crops and picking apples. 

When we were finished reading the books, we did another leaf project.  I saw this idea on See What We Did Today.  A fun blog with lots of craft ideas for preschoolers. 


Trace and cut out leaves on fall colored paper....we used Red, Orange and Yellow.  Crumple them up and then flatten them out.  Mix together generous amounts of glitter and light corn syrup.


Brush the corn syrup/glitter mixture on the leaves.





Aren't these so pretty?


A bit of a warning though, the corn syrup makes them pretty sticky....but I think it was worth it.

Linking to A Mommy's Adventure and stART



While you're here, why not check out my interview with a fellow stART mom....Leah

19 comments:

Brimful Curiosities said...

I've seen other crafts that use corn syrup paint. Does it remain sticky or finally dry?

Crystal said...

Great post- I love fall art projects. My kids think collecting leaves and pincones for the projects are the best part...it's like a treasure hunt!

Crystal
http://survivingandthrivinginmom-dom.blogspot.com

An Almost Unschooling Mom said...

I would never have thought to mix glitter, and corn syrup - very interesting!

Unknown said...

I am going to try this my kids, they will love this. Thank you for sharing.

Krajcimama said...

Those are BEAUTIFUL!

I would hang them from the ceiling - I did that with the snowflakes we made last year and the kids LOVED them! We enjoyed them all winter and I hated to have to take them down. Our inspiration was the movie ELF ~ my son was OBSESSED with that movie! We still watch it every once in a while.

Sorry - I get carried away when I comment! hehehe

kewkew said...

Thanks for stopping by my blog and for the kind comment. I love this craft. Though I do need to echo the first question. Does it remain sticky or does it dry? I'll have to go get some glitter. I also love the homemade fingerpaint idea. Can't wait to try these. The books look great too.

Cheryl said...

What a cool project!

Ticia said...

How very cool. They did turn out so pretty.

Charlene Juliani said...

It dries! It takes awhile, but it does dry out and the stickiness goes away.

Empty Nester said...

I miss art projects with my girls...Hey, maybe my college daughters will come over for some fall art! Enjoying your blog.

Debbie said...

This is an interesting project. I love the way they turned out. I am going to remember those books for next year, since our Autumn books are just now beginning to trickle back into the library and our rains are here so leave hunting is done.

Michelle Gibson said...

Love the brightly colored leaves! I bet the corn syrup was a sticky fun mess!

April said...

Those are very pretty leaves.

Christy Killoran said...

SO pretty!

LitLass said...

We'll have to try that activity. Our leaves here are about to start changing, so I'll have to check out those books soon.

Dianna@KennedyAdventures said...

Charlene -- I LOVE this idea! I'll be sure to try it soon, and link up to you in the process! So cute!

Jackie Higgins said...

Yes, very pretty! We read the Going on a Leaf Hunt book too. I read an idea on another blog for the Going on a Bear Hunt book. It said to set up an outdoor obstacle course based on the book for your child to go through. Some of your older ones might have fun setting that up for the little ones.

Shanti said...

OMG...i cant believe this..I just picked up that apron for my son from Dollar Tree last nite..the exact same one..love your ideas...

Coley said...

They are so pretty! What a fun project to do with kids :)