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You are here: Home / Themes / Fall / Fall Craft for Toddlers and Preschoolers: Leaf Sun Catcher

Fall Craft for Toddlers and Preschoolers: Leaf Sun Catcher

By Shaunna Evans 21 Comments · This content may contain affiliate links.

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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.

Fall Leaf Suncatcher

FIND ALL OF OUR LEAF THEME ACTIVITIES IN OUR PRINTABLE LESSON PLANS
FOR HOME PRESCHOOL AND PRESCHOOL CLASSROOMS.

See a Quick Video Tutorial: How to Make a Fall Leaf Sun Catcher with Kids

Directions for Making Fall Leaf Suncatcher Craft

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.

Tissue paper sticky table

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.

Toddler Fall Craft

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.

Fall Craft

Leaf Suncatcher

Fall Leaf Craft

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.

MORE FALL LEAF ART INSPIRATION: 24 creative fall leaf art project ideas for kids!

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.

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Filed Under: Art, Fall, Fine Motor, Preschool, Toddler Tagged With: fall crafts, leaves, suncatcher

Previous Post: « Jack and the Beanstalk Sensory Bin and Story Retelling Activity
Next Post: Simple Farm Sensory Play »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Alifyah

    July 6, 2020 at 1:12 am

    I have seen such cool sun catcher ideas now, that I’m really tempted to try it out!! Plus its autumn here in Australia, so would love to have that vibe going!!

    Reply
    • Shaunna

      July 6, 2020 at 6:29 am

      So glad to hear that, Alifyah! Happy crafting!

      Reply
  2. Jean Bump

    February 24, 2017 at 6:33 pm

    Thanks for the idea. I will give this a try with butterflies and flowers for spring!

    Reply
  3. Becky Cairns

    October 21, 2014 at 7:25 am

    Shaunna

    What a great Autumn craft idea to do with little ones, I love how it catches the light and makes the colours really glow. It is such a great idea I have reposted in my list of top 10 Autumn craft activities to do with children.

    Reply
    • Shaunna Evans

      October 26, 2014 at 7:04 am

      Thank you so much, Becky!

      Reply
  4. Melissa Landa

    September 3, 2014 at 5:16 pm

    I love these! I’m going to do this with my daughter and niece next week. Where did you get the template for your leaves? I really like them, please share!

    Reply
    • Shaunna Evans

      September 23, 2014 at 6:46 pm

      Oh, I wish I had a template for you, Melissa. I did these freehand.

      Reply
      • Lin Patton

        March 2, 2020 at 1:03 am

        Use leaf shaped cookie cutters

        Reply
  5. Suzanne

    May 15, 2014 at 9:54 am

    The article is great, thank you, but the teacher is me wants to point out that the correct spelling of “Peal the back off ” is “Peel the back off”.

    Reply
    • Shaunna Evans

      May 15, 2014 at 12:50 pm

      Ha! That’s what I get for writing after long, busy days. I need an editor. 🙂 Thanks so much for catching that, Suzanne.

      Reply
  6. Heather @ Life as we know it...

    September 15, 2013 at 9:15 pm

    Love sun catchers, we have a big sliding glass door in our playroom and the kids love to decorate it with suncatchers each season. It was so great meeting you today at the #weteach event, Shaunna, hope we can meet again!

    Reply
    • Shaunna

      September 16, 2013 at 1:13 pm

      I love sun catchers too! And window markers on the big windows always seem to brighten our days. So glad we had the chance to meet IRL. Maybe we’ll see each other at some blogging events in the area!

      Reply
  7. Anne Campbell {LearningTable}

    September 8, 2013 at 12:23 pm

    What a fun (and pretty) fall craft! I featured this as one of my favorites from the Hearts for Home Blog Hop. Stop by and grab your “I was featured” button. Congrats! and thanks for linking up! 🙂

    Reply
    • Shaunna

      September 8, 2013 at 9:45 pm

      Thanks so much for featuring this post!

      Reply
  8. Amie

    September 3, 2013 at 8:56 am

    Sun catchers is a real favourite activity around here! I love those gorgeous fall colours against the window, the kids must be thrilled with their efforts. I am featuring this post on my Kids Co-Op post this week at Triple T Mum!

    Reply
    • Shaunna

      September 7, 2013 at 9:02 am

      We love sun catchers, too! Always so pretty! Thanks for featuring this post.

      Reply
  9. Ashley

    September 1, 2013 at 7:33 pm

    Very cute fall craft! Thanks for sharing at Mom’s Library!

    Reply
  10. Sandi

    August 31, 2013 at 1:46 am

    Your leaves look so beautiful with the sun shining through them.

    Reply
    • Shaunna

      August 31, 2013 at 8:30 pm

      Thank you, Sandi! Suncatchers always make me smile, and the colors in these ones make the sunlight so pretty.

      Reply
  11. Jen Fischer

    November 11, 2012 at 6:32 pm

    These leaf catchers are great. I definitely need to get some contact paper to do some activities like this with my little guys.

    Reply
    • Shaunna

      November 11, 2012 at 6:56 pm

      Thanks! Yes, definitely grab some. There are tons of possibilities for shapes and different themes, and it is a project that is easy to do with different age groups.

      Reply

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