Autumn Leaf Painting

     The air is crisp, the leaves are turning beautiful shades, and cozy sweaters are a playground must. Fall is here and I say embrace it! This year I have vowed to enjoy more time outdoors with the kiddies and with a few warm scarves and some extra travel mugs for pumpkin spice lattes it has been a lovely fall so far. This activity started with a simple walk around the block to collect some leaves (which Mr. Jeej insisted would be for a "special activity") and to look for signs of Fall.

     We got back from our walk a little late, and I knew I had to come up with an activity fast before lunch, or I would have two disappointed little people.  Luckily I had a few sponges and paint handy, thus the autumn leaf painting activity was born. This art activity requires almost no set up, you will need sponges (I cut a standard size rectangular sponge into smaller pieces for Baby E and Mr. Jeej's small hands), a few colours of paint ( we use the Crayola washable kind in the neon colour scheme for this activity, but fall-ish colours would also produce beautiful results), a collection of interesting leaves, and some paper. 
     We started out by placing the leaves onto the paper and using the sponge to dab paint along the edges of the leaves. For Baby E, I find it easier for her and WAY less messy, if  I squirt a few colours of paint onto a paper plate for her to use. It turns out that keeping the leaves in place was a little tricky for Baby E (19 months) and Mr Jeej ( 3 and 1/2). I ended up using a tiny bit of masking tape on the back of the leaves to help keep them secure, to help get a more recognizable shape of each leaf. It worked beautifully and both of the littles were thrilled with the results! 
     This activity is an easy set up process oriented activity that could have tons of follow up activities. It's also a great conversation starter about negative space in artwork or about leaves in general. We happened to have Leaf Man and Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf by Lois Ehlert on loan from our local library. Both provide great examples of leaf related artwork! I think next time we will make leaf men of our own!