IT’S FALL!!! Well, I may be a little too excited for the ushering in of cooler weather down here in Florida, but I’m also excited that we get to dive in to some of our favorite fall learning themes. This week we are learning about how the seasonal change affects leaves. To introduce our new topic, we read some great books about leaves and fall. Today we are sharing a leafy name art activity using dried leaves. This fun hands-on activity will help build name recognition and spelling while also involving the senses.
FIND ALL OF OUR LEAF THEME ACTIVITIES IN OUR PRINTABLE LESSON PLANS
FOR HOME PRESCHOOL AND PRESCHOOL CLASSROOMS.
Fall Leaf Art Name Activity
Materials Needed for Fall Leaves Name Art
- Collection bin
- Dried leaves
- Glue stick
- Construction paper
- Tray (optional)
Getting Started
Any time we can incorporate getting outside to learn, it’s a hit! Nature walks are a fun way to immerse learning and nature. Whether you’re looking for certain colors, plants, or animals, getting outside is good for the soul! We started our leafy name art activity by heading outdoors to collect some dried leaves. The girls enjoyed hunting for leaves that had fallen beneath the trees. They immediately noticed how different they looked and felt compared to the leaves that remained on the trees.
Creating the Leafy Name Art
Once we filled our collection bin with dried leaves, it was time to get started creating our leafy name art. We first started by crumbling up the dried leaves into tiny pieces onto our tray. The tray is helpful in containing the dried leaf scraps. We definitely recommend making sure that your leaves are very dry so that they will easily crumble. The girls loved to hear the leaves crunching between their fingers.
The sensory play in the dried leaf bin lasted a little longer and then it was time to begin creating our name art.
We chose fall colored construction paper and my oldest one helped me spell out her name, filling the entirety of the construction paper. Next, she traced over each letter of her name with a wide glue stick. We recommend gluing one letter at a time as the glue stick glue dries quickly.
Finally, the name art could begin! Holding the bits of leaves in their fingers, they pretended to let them fall onto their names just like the leaves fall off the trees. Pressing down on the fallen leaves helped them to stick to the glue. This continued until each letter was glued and their names were covered.
This fall name art activity was so much fun! It got us outside and using our senses to create a beautiful piece of art that will decorate our refrigerator this fall!
MORE FALL LEAF ART INSPIRATION: 24 creative fall leaf art project ideas for kids!
FAVORITE LEAF BOOKS
There are a ton of wonderful books to read for your leaf theme. Below are some of our favorite picture books for a leaf theme.
Bring the colors of fall to your kids with real photographs and nonfiction texts even if you can’t experience the changing colors in person.
MORE FALL BOOKS
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.
Visit our Preschool Leaf Theme Resource Page for more inspiration.
Heidi Loyd
Fabulous learning activities. They look soooo fun too.