Kids Create: Fall Leaf Rubbings

 

"What do you notice about these?" I asked as I laid five leaves on the caterpillar-shaped table.

"They're all different colors and shapes," Natalie piped in right away.

"Yeah! What else?"

"Hm... oh! Different sizes. And some have long stems and some have short stems. And some are wavier."

This is how four children, three caregivers, and myself started our leaf rubbing exploration during Kids Create at Red Hook Library on November 9th. We continued to discuss what happens to leaves after they fall -- they sit around, and eventually just disappear! One way to preserve leaves is by using a frottage technique. By creating rubbings, we can keep colorful impressions of autumn around as long as we want.

I took an oak leaf and let each child feel the top and bottom. We determined that the bottom side would make the best rubbing, and glued the leaves face-side down to one sheet of paper.

Next, we made a sandwich! A leaf and paper sandwich, that is. The top sheet was our art sheet. We took our crayons and began to color. Amazed shouts abounded as colorful leaves appeared as if by magic. We tried switching colors mid-leaf, turning the paper mid-rubbing, making new arrangements of leaves, and creating drawings amid the leaves.

When everyone was rolling along nicely, I shared one of my new favorite books: "The Wolf, the Duck, and the Mouse" by Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen. This gem is a just-so story and features not one, but two (!!!) opportunities for dance breaks. The story was riveting for children and grown-ups alike. At the end, we all howled together, "Oh, woe! Oh woe!"

We ended finishing up our artworks and exploring some of our favorite illustrations in the book.

(Time warp: I did another version of this project last year with children at the Park Slope Library. Instead of creating compositions on individual sheets of paper, we cut out our leaf shapes and pasted them to large drawings of tree trunks that were taped to the wall. That time, we paired our activity with "Where the Wild Things Are" by Maurice Sendak -- and once we had finished creating our forest in our room, we commenced a wild rumpus. (Playlist here!))

Back to the present day, in Red Hook. Everyone took their creations home, along with extra leaves to create more art at home with. This is one of my favorite types of projects, simple enough to explain in moments, creates beautiful results, and easy to do again at home.

 

Can't get enough of crafting?  Checkoutour Kids Create program at a branch near you! Click here