Leaf Activities for Kids

Fall is right around the corner in the northern part of the world, which means it’s time for activities using leaves and learning about leaves. Here are some go-to activities and printables for fall that allow you to bring leaves into the classroom.

Of course you’ll want to start with a nature walk to gather some leaves. Then you can sort them by color with these printable cards from KC Edventures, or use the cards from Preschool Powol Packets to identify the kinds of leaves you’ve found.

Try matching leaves you find with other, similar leaves, like this activity from Schooltime Snippets. (It also includes other activities inspired by the book Leaf Man, which are lots of fun.)

You’ll also want to learn about the parts of a leaf with these resources collected by Gift of Curiosity, and try this activity that’s from the same blog exploring how leaves get water.

You can use some of your leaves to make bookmarks, as in this activity from Mommy Evolution. Or use your leaves for cutting practice or punching holes; both ideas are from the OT Toolbox.

And if you’ve got a yard or a playground full of leaves, you can make yourself a leaf maze or labyrinth for kids to explore. This idea is from Happy Hooligans.

Make sure you preserve some of those leaves for other crafts through the season or to decorate your Thanksgiving table. Red Ted Art has a rundown of the best methods for leaf preservation.

Get a full Montessori-inspired, leaf-related set of activities from Mama’s Happy Hive, which includes activities using real leaves as well as leaf shapes.

And if you don’t have any leaves you can use these printables to do a leaf shadow matching activity from Tot Schooling. Or make a roll and count fall leaves activity like this one from l (make felt leaves or punch shapes out of real leave if you don’t have leaf scatter to use).

Next Plan Idea:

Leaf Reading and Writing Activities

I’m in deep denial about the fact that new year is almost upon us again! It’s been the fastest and the longest year at the same time, and I can look back and see some good things as well as some things I wish had gone differently.

Doing a year in review with your kids — whether in the classroom or at home — is a good way to capture some of their memories and the things they really liked about the year gone by.

There are a lot of different printable year in review worksheets you can use if you want to make this super easy. Here are links to a few (often part of larger posts about NYE celebrations with kids that are worth a read, too):

Teach Beside Me has lots of fun printables fro the end of the year, including a year in review that covers favorite memory, funniest memory and the best book they read, among other topics.
NurtureStore‘s version has space for a self-portrait and prompts like favorite toy, best day out this year and future dream job.
Remember favorites, their “best idea” of the year and have room for setting goals for next year with this one from The Keele Deal.
The year in review from Yes We Made This has room for drawing or writing and includes things like something they learned, a memory they made and a place they visited.

Of course you could pretty easily make your own year in review for the whole family to do that asks questions based on what you most want to remember. (Favorite video game? Best friend? Favorite family memory?)

And if after the year in review you’re ready to look ahead a bit, Mrs. Merry has new year’s resolution printables to inspired kids to look ahead and set goals for things they want to try. You can totally fill this one out as a grownup, too.

[Photo: Mrs. Merry]

Next Plan Idea:

Have you read?

Leave a Reply