Fall Craft for Toddlers and Preschoolers: Leaf Sun Catcher

Are you starting to think of fall yet? We are! Since there were just a handful of you reading this blog last year during the fall, I’ll be sharing a few our our fall crafts from last year over the next couple of weeks…in addition to some new fun! This easy leaf suncatcher craft turned out so pretty, and it’s a craft kids of all ages can do together.

FIND ALL OF OUR LEAF THEME ACTIVITIES IN OUR PRINTABLE LESSON PLANS

FOR HOME PRESCHOOL AND PRESCHOOL CLASSROOMS.

Preparation

Cut out two sheets of clear contact paper per child. Check to make sure the sheets are small enough to fit in the location where the suncatchers will hang. I have definitely made the mistake of making the suncatchers too big for our hanging spot before, so I remembered to check first this time!

Cut squares of fall colored tissue paper. You could also have kids tear their own pieces to incorporate additional fine motor practice. We used red, orange, and yellow, but you could use any mixture of colors.

Peel the back off of one sheet of the contact paper. Tape one sheet sticky side up onto each child’s work surface. This alone is fun for the kids to play with! They all sat happily sticking and releasing their fingers for some time before I gave them the tissue paper.

Pass out the tissue paper and encourage the kids to cover the whole sheet with paper in any way they would like to. Pinching the tissue paper between their fingers and placing it onto the contact paper is great fine motor practice.

Get Started

The big kids eagerly got to work.

I helped Tinker get started. She wanted to put the pieces on and then pull them off like she did with her finger, so she was a bit skeptical of the project at first. After a little experimenting she was also ready to go.

While they worked, I showed the kids some leaf shapes from the books we have been reading. They chose three different leaf shapes, and I sketched one each on pieces of construction paper folded in half. By folding the paper in half and tracing one whole leaf I could cut out both the front and the back of the suncatcher at once. I saved the outline of each leaf (the paper that would usually be discarded) to use as a tracer later.

Next to make the hole in the middle of each leaf I kept both the front and the back parts together and folded them in half. I cut along the inside of the pattern of the leaf making about a half-inch frame. Cutting both pieces at the same time helps make sure the frames match up nicely.

Once the kids finished adding all of their tissue paper, we removed the backing from the second piece of contact paper and the kids helped smooth it out on top of their tissue paper.

Then we laid the outline that I saved on top of the tissue paper and together we traced the outline of the leaf on the contact paper. This helped make sure the inside of the suncatcher was just the right size.

I also helped the kids cut around that outline and glue it in between the front and back leaf frames. To make our leaves resemble the real leaves we had collected each child chose a pair of decorative edged scissors, and I cut around their leaves for them this time.

The explanation may be lengthy because I wanted to describe all of the steps in detail, but the whole project only took about 20 minutes. Well worth it, because our finished leaf suncatchers look beautiful hanging in our windows! You can also check out these pretty suncatchers from Learn Create Love. They inspired our project.

Do you like to make suncatchers with your kids? You might also enjoy making our pumpkin suncatcher crafts.

Do you have any tips to share?

PRINTABLE LEAF THEME LESSON PLANS

Save time and get right to the playful learning with our printable lesson plan sets. Each set includes over 30 playful learning activities related to the theme, and we’ve provided different versions for home preschool families and classroom teachers so all activities are geared directly toward your needs.

This set currently includes active hands-on learning ideas and the following printables:

1) Roll and Say Fall ABC Game (uppercase and lowercase versions)
2) Roll and Count Leaves Math Game
3) Small Leaf Cards for Sorting and Patterning
4) Sight Word Trees Activity Mats, Letter Cards, and Sight Word Cards
5) Color Word Leaf Cards
6) Leaf Number Cards (0-35)
7) Sorting Leaves Color Mats and Leaf Cards
8) Fall Leaves Emergent Reader (3 versions)
9) Leaf Observation Recording Sheet

GET YOUR LESSON PLANS

Home Preschool Leaf Theme Lesson Plans

Preschool Classroom Leaf Theme Lesson Plans

Also available on Teachers Pay Teachers.