Autumn is perhaps the most suitable time of the year for a child to get acquainted with various natural materials by making all kinds of handicrafts from them. Leaves are the most readily available materials for this activity. If you show a drop of imagination, then you can make a lot of interesting compositions out of them.
What can be made from leaves
For creating crafts, colorful leaves are best suited, which can be collected in the fall in any park. Before you start creating, the leaves need to be dried. To do this, you can use a regular iron and iron the leaves properly so that excess moisture evaporates from them, and the material itself acquires clearer contours. As for the crafts themselves, there are a great many options that can be made from leaves, for example, applications, paintings, photo frames, etc. Also, fragments of foliage can be used to create figurines of animals, which are based on cones, acorns, nuts, and more.
Leaf frames
In every family there are photographs that deserve to occupy the most prominent place in the house. Therefore, a photo frame, especially a copy made by your beloved child, will never be superfluous. The option proposed below is simple; a child over four years old can do it.
- colorful leaves;
- glue;
- thick cardboard;
- Matt lacquer.
Dry the leaves. Cut out two identical rectangles from cardboard, the length and width of which are eight centimeters larger than the photo for which the frame is created. In the middle of one of the rectangles, cut out a slightly smaller rectangle than the photo.
Place in front of you the rectangle in the middle of which you previously cut the hole. Hold the prepared leaves for two or three seconds in hot water (this will give them flexibility), grease each leaf with glue and glue it to the cardboard so that there are no "gaps" (wrap the edges of the leaves on the wrong side of the cardboard). Leave the frame for about an hour to dry slightly.
Put a solid rectangular square in front of you, in its middle - a photo, then on top - the previously made frame itself. Glue everything carefully. Put the craft under a stack of books for a day, and after the time has passed, coat the leaves of the frame with varnish and let it dry.
Dry leaf applique
Application is the simplest craft that can be offered to make even a very small child.
- leaves (dry);
- glue;
- album sheets;
- scissors;
- pencil.
Place an album sheet in front of you and draw on it a sample of any animal, for example, the head of a lion or the figure of a fish.
Invite your child to create a circle from yellow leaves (explain in advance that this will be a lion's mane) and stick them on a landscape sheet. Themselves, meanwhile, cut the lion's face. Invite your child to color it, and then stick it in the middle of the "mane". The application is ready.
Let the child color the muzzle of the previously made fish template. Next, together with the child, create scales using small yellow leaves and glue it to the template without touching the head (it is better to use rowan leaves to create scales). Make fins and a tail from leaves of brown or red color, glue the blanks.
The above are the simplest examples of applications that can be done with children. However, if you show your imagination, then you can create more original applications or whole landscape paintings from the leaves.
