Kids Explore Nature (Tree Hugging Tots): Leaves

This week's, Tree Hugging Tots (Kids Explore Nature), was leaves. That just worked out so well for us, because we just finished a mini unit study on Fall Leaves. Here is a recap of the Fall Leaf fun we had, plus a new Fall Leaf craft as well.

LEAF WALK: We went on the most beautiful leaf walk through our neighborhood. We listened to the leaves crunch under our feet, watched them float to the ground and of course collected some to take home with us.

One of our family's favorite trees is the Sycamore. They can grow to be over 150 feet tall and are just so majestic to look at. Caleb found the biggest Sycamore leaf we have ever seen.

Even Caroline got in on the Leaf Walk fun. Here she is holding a pretty yellow Oak leaf.

LEAF ART: We read the book, "Leaf Man" by Lois Ehlert. She says in the back of this book that she believes leaves to be some of the most beautiful art supplies to work with.

We Agree!

Leaf Man

Leaf Cat

Leaf Little Boy

My Little Leaf Artist

LEAF IDENTIFICATION: We also took all of the leaf rubbings we had made from our Deciduous Tree Unit and made a leaf identification poster. Caleb told me what type of leaf each one was and I wrote the names at the bottom for him. His favorites were the Indian Bean Tree and the little Aspen leaf.

WHY DO LEAVES CHANGE COLORS/LEAF CRAFT: My favorite part of this mini unit was learning why leaves change colors in the first place. We read the Let's Read and Find Out book, "Why Do Leaves Change Color?" I love this whole series of books because they give so much information at a child's level in a story format.

Next we did the coolest craft. We took some of the prettiest leaves we had collected, cut out two pieces of wax paper per leaf, put the leaves in between the wax paper and ironed over it all to seal it.

You can find detailed directions for this craft here.

This picture does not do it justice. The sun really shines through these beautiful leaves and everything just glows. Plus this was a very simple craft to do. I love walking into our living room and seeing these leaves in the window. Makes me smile every time.

That's our week with Fall leaves! If you head over to Shannon's blog, Mommies Wise Little Bookworms you can see some more leaf fun that other families had. This is a great blog carnival so you should really check it out.