Leaf Learning Activities for Kids

There are lots of things you can do with leaves in the classroom and at home, and fun ways to learn about leaves as they start changing color in the fall.

Learn about different kinds of leaves and match them to their trees with this printable from Montessori Nature. It includes 10 kinds of trees and their leaves to match with. If you have those trees nearby you can also find the real leaves to match with.

Of course if you’re going on a leaf hunt yourself, you’ll want to save some of those leaves the kids find in their own leaf collection and identification books. You can learn how to make your own from Dappled Skies and DIYs. Or turn your leaf peeping into a sticky leaf scavenger hunt with this idea from Little Pine Learners.

There are a lot of easy art activities you can do with leaves, such as the classic rubbing (check out a tutorial if you need it from Laura Radniecki), complete a picture with half a leaf and learn about symmetry (like in this post from NurtureStore) or drawn in, on and around leaves to make fun art as shown in this idea from Artful Parent.

Make your leaves into people, paint on them or with them; there are so many possible ideas!

Trace your leaves, label them with what kinds of trees they came from, and then play a matching game like this one from Preschool Toolkit.

Early Learning Ideas has some great printables on the parts of a tree and a leaf, the life cycle of an oak tree and leaf sorting that you can find on Teachers Pay Teachers. Or check out the leaf investigation worksheet from Turner Tots.

Looking for more leaf fun? Check out these ideas for leaf activities that don’t use real leaves, and these that do. And let me know what your favorite way to play and learn with leaves is!

10 Fall leaf ideas [Recycled Crafts]

8 Fun Fall Leaf Math Activities

Cascading Fall Leaf Necklace [Jewelry Making]

When my daughter was younger I would spend a lot of time trying to come up with activities she could do in the car on long road trips and things to entertain her when we were waiting at restaurants and things that didn’t involve screens.

But it turns out there are a lot of great activities you can do with just a piece of paper and a pen.

What Do We Do All Day has a great collection of pen and paper games, including some that can be done with just one person, though they’re all more fun if you have at least two.

There are some classics on here like hangman and dots and boxes, but there are also quite a few I hadn’t heard of before.

I don’t want to spoil the whole list for you because you should definitely click over there and look around, but I will share about the one that you see pictured above.

This game is called Bridges, and you start by making the big random shape and the dividing it into a bunch of sections (the post says 30-50 sections is ideal but I think this one is smaller than that).

Each player gets their own color marker and you take turns drawing bridges from one space to another, crossing a third. Once there’s a bridge, no other bridges can start, end or cross in those spaces. Keep going until no more bridges can be built, and the person who makes the last bridge wins.

Check out the post over at What We Do All Day for more great ideas for no or almost-no prep games you can play with your kids or that kids can play together. I’d love to know if you have a favorite paper and pen game, whether it’s on this list or a different one.

[Photo: What We Do All Day]

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