leaf fairies

M's idea- similar to the animal idea we tried, have a look here at how we've used leaves before today. Today it was fairies and elves. I though some water colour paints would be good to use too.

what we did with leaves

On my internet wanderings I came across this book, click on the link for more details

Look what I did with the leaf!

The pictures inspired me to have the kids collect as many different kinds of leaves as they could and we pressed them in the 'pressers' their dad made.

With nice flat leaves, some paper and some pva glue we created these. I love the elephant attempt best!

We're lucky enough to live near lots of  big trees. In Autumn our section is always covered with lots of colours and shapes of leaves.  Every year I've tried to use some in a creative way- here's some of our older posts for more ideas:

goldsworthy inspired patterns

 leaf crowns

leaf window collage

leaf rubbings

paper owls

I like owls, so do the kids, their preschool's logo is an owl ( Minerva the goddess of knowledge). I saw this lesson on Pinterest, here's the link splishsplashsplatterart.blogspot.co.nz there's some other great art ideas there too. It's adapted slightly in that I cut all of T's triangles and circles out for him and most of M's. I showed them how to start off at the bottom. From there I guided them in adding rows of triangles or ' feathers' by moving up the page- 6-8 rows worked. We talked about how owl's eyes are big and round and where they could go on the page, they did all the gluing and added a beak, feet and feathers and in T's case, a smart triangle hat. 

I love collecting ( my husband would call it hoarding!) paper and card, I have a funny habit that I may have inherited from my Nana in that I can't throw wrapping paper or birthday cards away. For M's first birthday I even lined her dresser drawers with the wrapping paper her gifts came in. Every card they've ever been given is in a scrap book, I've promised myself to stop on their 5th birthdays- I'm just too sentimental I'm thinking.

I use paper and card in so many ways, preschool scrap books, collage, paper mache, sewn paper buntings, card making, sculpture. My growing collection of 'special' paper, card and stickers will be used to cover M's school books next year- I know, I'm such a planner! 

 

happinesss is a hole punch

I got this for $3 a few days ago as I wanted something to help me make nice tidy homemade gift tags. I thought the kids might like punching holes with it. They did and they loved opening up the part where it collects all the little round 'punches'. M did some collage with it, she got a bit frustrated when the 'punches' kept sticking to her gluey hands so I suggest she wash them and I gave her a cotton bud to use to move the bits around the paper. I like the colours and the looks of concentration on their faces while they worked out how to use the punch. I'm thinking we'll use the 'holey' strips of paper to do some sort of threading/ sewing activity in future.

leaves

The boy loves playing with the leaves he finds in our garden so I asked him if he wanted to make something that would let him enjoy them inside too. I like making use of things that are in our environment and brown crunchy leaves are not only fun but can open up lots of fun chats about changes in seasons, trees, leaf systems etc. Cut and peel the backing off a large piece of clear book cover, press the leaves onto the sticky side, press it on to the window and admire it as the sun shines through the leaves.

collage with old mags

I found a use for some old magazines I've been hoarding : ) I cut strips, some wide and some thin and put them in a basket. Both children had a paintbrush paste and black paper and I encouraged them to choose a strip of magazine that they liked to look of. They put glue on the back of the strip or on the paper and from then I just watched. I loved listening to them talking about what pictures they found on the strips and where they were going to put them on the page. They both wanted me to cut bits up " for the little spaces" which I did. It kept them busy for nearly an hour which I was grateful for as one of them is still pretty cranky with the chicken pox.