Autumn Art Projects

Here are a couple of simple and fun fall art projects for your classroom.

First Idea: Colored Leaf Stained Glass

First, we went on a walk around town and picked a variety of beautiful leaves.

(In the interest of full disclosure, this, like all of my good ideas, was not my idea. It was from Brandi. Thanks for the idea!!)

Fold a section of regular wax paper in half and fill it with your favorite leaves.

Fold the paper over your leaves (you may have to rearrange the leaves a bit to keep them from folding or moving).

Put a towel over the wax paper and iron on HIGH heat.

The wax needs to fuse together between the leaves. Don't let the children do this part unless they are mature enough to handle a BURNING HOT IRON.

This one is obviously not ready for that responsibility.

Let the project cool and then trim around the leaves making sure you leave plenty of fused wax paper to hold it all together. Tape them in the window. They look like stained glass when the light comes through.

**Note: I ran out of wax paper before I ran out of crafters. We tried using plastic wrap. It was sooo much easier than wax paper because it clings to itself without ironing. Now, several days after hanging the leaves, the ones in the plastic are curling and browning. The ironing of the wax paper must have helped preserve the leaves because the projects in wax paper look the same today as they did the day we made them.

Second Idea: Leaf rubbing.

Choose leaves with prominent veins. Use a variety of leaf shapes from the round geranium to the pointy elm.

With autumn colored crayons, rub over the leaves. How easy is that?

You can color a border around the page if you want. I like the look of a collage of leaves and colors, but if you are more organized than that, you can draw a trunk and fill the boughs with rubbed leaves.

While the children are doing these projects, it can be a good time to memorize a poem or play rhyming games. Put some apple cider on the stove and enjoy your art time.