Leaf Man

by Lois Ehlert


Leaf Man is a delightful book that tells the story of the Leaf Man as he is taken on an journey by the wind. Where is he going? No one is quite sure, but you'll have to follow along with him to be a part of this adventure.

We love Lois Ehlert's books in our home and this book is no exception. We loved the beautiful array of pictures on each page. It was fun spending time exploring each page and seeing what images we could see using leaves. It was also filled with great ideas of what you can do with leaves and also using your imagination. I will definitely be adding this book to our library collection.



Activity: Leaf Crafts

This activity was one that we spread out over a few different days.

#1 - The first part of this was we went on a little trip up the canyon near us to collect some of the beautiful autumn leaves. It was a fun time and it was nice to be in nature and exploring. We came home with some of the most beautiful colors of leaves that I have ever seen.

#2 - The next part, was to dry our leaves out. We gently rinsed them in just water, patted them dry, then laid them between layers of newspaper in between a few trays. These trays were then placed underneath our tool box and we let it sit for a week to make sure they dried completely. The best resource for this was a great book called Look What I Did With a Leaf by Morteza E. Sohi. This book was wonderful! It was filled with instructions and ideas of what to do with leaves and taking care of them. I highly recommend this!

Since the ages of my children are very different we did two different things for each of them.


Sonny Boy's Activity:

We went for a walk down our street collecting some freshly fallen leaves. It was lovely to see the range of colors we were able to collect.

Supplies:

Clear Contact Paper
Leaves (we didn't use dried leaves for this but you can if you prefer)


For Sonny Boy we cut out an 8.5x11 (or whichever size you prefer) out and laid that down in front of him with the sticky side up. I would recommend taping the sides with masking tape to hold it in place.

Then let him create his masterpiece! He had fun picking the leaves and then stamping them down onto the sticky paper. Once he was done with this, we covered the side with the leaves with another sheet of contact paper. It is a lovely piece of art!







Sweetie Pie's Activity:

For this activity we used the dried leaves that we had collected. I asked her to decide what picture she wanted to create using the leaves.

Supplies:

Dried Leaves (variety of sizes)
Construction Paper
Glue
Any other little 'gifts' of nature that you find. (We didn't end up using the acorns she had collected)




After reading Leaf Man and also looking through Look What I Did With a Leaf Hannah decided that she wanted to create a Leaf Turtle. She had all the supplies that she needed and she worked away. She was very pleased with the end result.

Working diligently

Making the happy face

Sweetie Pie's Leaf Turtle

My Gems!

The Apple Pie Tree

By Zoe Hall

The Apple Pie Tree is a cute story about the experience of two little sisters as they watch their apple tree go through it's life cycle starting from the Winter season through to the Fall. It follows not only what happens to their tree during the space of a year but also a family of Robins that are growing along with the tree. The back of this book also contains a recipe for Apple Pie and shows how bees pollinate apple tree blossoms.

I loved how simple this book was and also how clearly it teaches about the life cycle of an Apple Tree. I found the illustrations simply beautiful. This book provided me and Sweetie Pie opportunities to have numerous conversations about the seasons, the life cycle of an apple tree and also the desire to make Apple pie! I promised Sweetie Pie that we had lots more apple books to read and we will be making yummy apple pie soon!



Activity #1: Apple Tree Sun Catcher

While Sonny Boy was down for a nap, Sweetie Pie and I made this beautiful apple tree sun catcher that is hanging so beautifully on our front door. It is so lovely!


Supplies:

Clear contact paper
Brown cardstock or construction paper (for the tree trunk)
Scissors
Red tissue paper (for the apples)
Green tissue paper (for the leaves)


I cut the tree trunk from the brown cardstock (you can get a pattern from the pictures in the book itself), the leaves from the green tissue paper and red apples from the red tissue paper. I folded the tissue paper many times before making any cuts, and this made the cutting much faster. Cut the contact paper twice the size of your tree because you will be folding this in half.


Lay the sheet of contact paper sticky side up, and attach the tree trunk to one side. It might be helpful to secure the sides of the contact paper with masking tape to avoid it shifting around.

Have your child to arrange the leaves and apples on and around the tree branches. When they are done fold the blank side of the contact paper over to cover their work.


I just love Sweetie Pie's idea of having an apple falling from the tree.


A beautiful sight!




Activity #2: Apple Wrapping Paper

Supplies:

Red Tempera paint
Green Tempera paint
Paper (any size you wish)
Half an Apple
Potato (cut to make a leaf stamp)


Secure your child's paper by taping down the sides with masking tape. Have your child stamp away.



When Sonny Boy was done painting and ready to eat an apple, I let him do that. Sweetie Pie was ready to take over and stamped the leaves on with the potato stamp.


I wish I got a picture of the very end but I didn't. When the paint was dry I went around the edge of each apple print with a black marker. This made a lovely gift wrap for my nieces birthday present.


Thanks for the inspiration Frugal Family Fun Blog