Sometimes I just need to find a good excuse to brave the freezing weather and get everyone outside. On the weekend that reason was autumn leaves… we needed to collect autumn leaves.
I wasn’t exactly sure why we needed autumn leaves, it just seemed like an important thing to do before they all fell from the trees and turned into a slippery mushy brown mess on the ground.
After putting fifty-gazillion layers of clothes on all the kids, and only ten-gazillion on myself (which really was an over-site) and attempting to bribe Noey with chocolate chips to keep his hat on (which didn’t work once the chocolate was gone… duh!) we headed into town to the park.
The kids raced around collecting leaves, watched the cockies tear up the pine cones and drop bits on our heads, and had a quick play on the equipment. Once my fingers were blue and the toddlers snot had frozen to his face (it was cold ok) we piled back into the Big White Bus and came home… with a HUGE bag of autumn leaves.
“So what are we going to do with all the leaves Mum?”
Um…. er…. um…. then inspiration struck and I went to find the hole punch.
Two days, lots of searching, and finally a trip to the shops later, with a brand new hole punch in hand Morgan set about punching holes in some of the Autumn leaves. We were going to thread them!
As Morgan worked on his fine motor and problem solving skills with the leaves and hole punch, I dug around in the cupboard for some beads, buttons and other thread-able items in ‘autumn colours’. We also discovered we could punch holes in the bits the cockies had stripped off the pine cones too, bonus!
Armed with some plastic threading ‘strings’ (The plastic ‘strings’ are stiffer and make it easier for little fingers to thread. You can buy packets of plastic string at craft shops or you can buy a roll of cheap whipper-snipper cord at the two dollar shop which is just as good) Morgan, and Noah (with a lot of help from me) had a lovely time making autumn leaf threadings.
We were going to use them as necklaces but when the sun shone through the window we decided they would look lovely hung up in the sunshine…
Now what to do with the rest of the autumn leaves?
Here are some autumn activities we’ve done in the past. (How cute was my big boy when he was little!)
Nat - Muddy Farmwife says
Fantastic! We’ve been trying to spend as much time as possible outside in the sun, now the kids can collect leaves rather than my roses!
mumspeak says
You’ve got so many great ideas that don’t cost a bundle and I wish I could remember at least one when I needed to. I wondered if you could put them onto a single page? Somewhat like Childhood 101 did for holiday ideas – just a rolling script of ideas?? It would be great to have a preschool ‘quick ideas to beat the boredom meltdowns’ mini poster on the fridge.
katef says
You know I’ve been thinking of creating an ebook about ‘easy art activities’… maybe a printable ‘go to list’ would be good to add to that?
Mandy says
We have a project on the go using Autumn leaves too. It’s probably the most unique season of the year.
veggie mama says
Aw, I want autumn leaves! Damn Queensland won’t give me them :(
katef says
You know I think this activity would work equally as well with regular leaves… probably better as gum leaves and the like would be stronger… and just think… I may have autumn leaves but I also have 2 degree mornings!
PlanningQueen says
Gorgeous idea Kate – pinned!
Kym says
Lovely idea Kate. I love autumn activities. Would you mind if I pinned this (and any other ideas from your site) to my boards on Pinterest?
katef says
Always happy for anyone to pin my posts (especially if they remember to link back to the actual post page and not just my blog! LOL.)
I really need to add a little button or notice to my side bar to say that don’t I….
Kym says
How can you ensure it links back to the actual page Kate? It doesn’t give you any options when you post using the Pinterest pin. I think by default it should but then I know I’ve clicked via Pinterest onto some pins and it has only connected to the blog not the post itself. Unless it does that when you repin?
katef says
As long as you pin from the actual post page (so click on the title of the post so you go to the page with just that post on it, not the home page of the blog) then your pin will link back to the post. :)
inès says
trés bonne idée !! je vais remplacer par les fleurs comme chez nous c’est l’été!! merci
Bright & Precious says
Fabulous idea – as usual – Kate! Filing this one away.
Emma says
Fun way to play with the leaves! Thanks for sharing!
Ann @My Nearest and Dearest says
Oh my goodness, I LOVE this!!! Now I know what we’re going to do with all the leaves I pressed last week. Thanks for the great idea.
Mariluz real says
Thank you wonderfull ideas … I was beginning to get sick of paper paper stuff :)