Make an Autumn leaves placemat
Birdie Snacks
Here’s how to make a gorgeous Autumn tree with a few simple materials.
Age group: 18months +
What you need:
- Large piece of paper (big enough to trace around your child’s arm from elbow to finger tip) It can be white or a light shade of yellow or orange.
- Crayons/felt tips/pastels
- bits for making leaves to decorating the tree (see list below)
- glue (PVA works well)
Autumn TreeTo make your leaves try some of these items:
- Construction Paper or card
- Tissue Paper
- Crepe Paper
- Wallpaper Samples and offcuts
- Scrap fabric
- Buttons
- Felt
- Pieces of Real Autumn Leaves
What to do:
- On the piece of paper, trace your hand and forearm all the way up to your elbow. Make sure you spread your fingers wide apart. This will be the tree trunk and your fingers will be the branches!
- Colour it in with brown crayons/felt tips or other drawing items. If you prefer, you could trace around your arm and hand on brown paper, cut it out and stick it onto another sheet ready for decorating.
- Using whatever you have chosen materials for leaves, cut out or punch small triangles or leaf shapes, and glue them all over your tree’s ‘branches’ to be the leaves.
- Use lots of reds, oranges, yellows, golds and browns to make beautiful colourful Autumn leaves!
- TIP: Got no scraps? Here’s how to make leaves using paints and little fingers!
- Pour a little paint onto a paper plate, dip your fingers in it and make fingerprints on the tree branches. Do this with red, orange, yellow, and brown!
I am a preschool and primary school teacher and mum to 3 children. I have been involved in education since 1997 and have trained in a variety of educational specialist areas. It is with this expertise that I write articles to help parents and educators provide quality learning experiences for the children in their care.
