“Art takes nature as its model.” – Aristotle

Our fall would not have been complete without some leaf printing. A pile of leaves, a few paints, and a Saturday afternoon was all we needed for a relaxing, yet engaging fall craft. I could not have picked a better fall activity for me and my preschooler. I was actually pleasantly surprised by how much Nathan enjoyed this activity. It was so much fun, we even got dad involved for a short period of time!

We first collected our leaves on a leaf hunt. Our inspiration came from the book We’re Going on a Leaf Hunt by Steve Metzger (you can view more activities to pair with this book on my sister site lessonplansource.com) Once home, I rolled out a long piece of butcher paper (I use that roll from IKEA) across our dining table. With a smock strapped to Nathan, paint and brushes prepped and wet paper towels handy, we spent the better part of an afternoon painting and printing leaves to create this really festive fall banner…

Nathan was so relaxed and focused throughout the printing process. I haven’t seen him work like that before. I loved watching him paint each leaf and notice little details about them (“this one has a bump” “this one has lines”). He is becoming such a big boy and yet quite the little artist.