Seasonal Visits to a Special Outdoor Place

Find a special place outdoor where you and your students can observe nature throughout the school year. Visit this same place each season and observe and collect leaves from a variety of plants, including trees. Observe the weather and temperate while you look for animals and insects that live in or use trees and other plants. Help students record their experiences in a nature journal or create a classroom poster. Compare your records for each season – describe the changes, make predictions for the next season’s visit.

Fall Art Projects

Paint with Pine Needles

Gather needles from the ground beneath a tree and use a strong rubber band to create bundles of “bristles.” Attach a stick handle, if desired. Let’s paint!

Leafy Greeting Cards

Have children collect leaves and press them between pages of thick phone books or between layers of newspaper with weight on top. After a couple of weeks, take them out. Give each child their personal collection of pressed leaves. Create “Happy Fall” greeting cards by gluing leaves to construction paper and decorating.

Leaf Prints

Paper

Stamp Pads

Paints and brushes

Variety of Leaves

Encourage children to make prints by pressing leaves onto stamp pads or painting them, then pressing onto paper. What shapes and patterns can they make?

Leafy Critters

Use different leaves to create animal shapes.

Leaf Rubbing

White paper

Leaves

Pencils

Have each child place their leaf vein side up on a flat surface, put paper over the leaf, and rub the side of the pencil on the paper over the leaf. Encourage students to explain why the pencil created the pattern it did? Let them trade leaves and do another rubbing – compare the results of the two rubbings.