If you’re looking for a fun fall art project for preschoolers to do this Autumn, make some leaf prints! Leaf Printing is fun and easy, and produces a piece of art pretty enough to hang on a wall in your home.
Children love making prints and they love exploring nature, so leaf printing is a great way to combine the two activities.
It’s also a great way for young children to learn about the trees and plants in your yard and to identify them based on the shape and intricacies of their leaves.
My daycare hooligans can already identify some of the trees in our yard by the distinct shape of their leaves. The maple leaf with its pointy edges, and the oak leaf with its curves, are two that they recognize at a young age.
Other leaves, however, aren’t as easy to identify, so leaf printing is a great way to familiarize the children with the other species of trees, plants and shrubs in our yard and garden.
You may also like our leaf matching activity.
The kids really get a chance to examine the details of a leaf when they’re making leaf prints, not only when they’re hunting for their leaves, but also when they observe the prints that their leaves make.
My toddlers and preschoolers love exploring the garden with a pair of scissors, collecting various leaves and flowers. It’s something we do often here in my daycare because the activity is great for fine-motor development and developing scissor skills, and a wonderful way to get in touch with the nature that surrounds us right here at home.
They also always enjoy making art in non-traditional ways, so making prints with leaves that they’ve gathered is just one more way for them to experiment and express themselves creatively.
The bonus with this activity is that the leaf prints look so beautiful when they’re done that you’ll want to proudly display them in your home or classroom.
That’s a win-win-win for sure: a fun outdoor activity, an educational experience, and a creative art process that produces a new piece of art for your home or classroom.
To see the step-by-step for our leaf printing activity, check out the full post here at CBC Parents to see how to do some leaf printing with your kids or students!
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Jackie is a mom, wife, home daycare provider, and the creative spirit behind Happy Hooligans. She specializes in kids’ crafts and activities, easy recipes, and parenting. She began blogging in 2011, and today, Happy Hooligans inspires more than 2 million parents, caregivers and Early Years Professionals all over the globe.
