Leaf Art Activity for Kids [Leaves and Glue]

By Rachelle 6 Comments

Super easy leaf art activity for small kids. All you’ll need for this activity are leaves, glue, paper, and a paintbrush.

First, gather a selection of fall leaves, a fun outdoor bonding activity before the art making. Clear a table, set up your materials, and invite your child to attach leaves to a piece of chipboard or cardboard. Your child will explore texture, practice fine motor skills, and exercise independent thinking.

This process leaf art activity for kids is easy to set up and a developmentally appropriate art experience for toddlers and preschoolers. Here at TinkerLab we call these simple process-oriented prompts Art Starters because they’re easy tools for helping kids get started with art. With Art Starters, keep in mind that the journey is the destination.

This is also an example of the weekly prompts our members receive in TinkerLab Schoolhouse. Add your name to our mailing list and we’ll send you a Schoolhouse-style PDF of this activity.

There are two things I adore about today’s process leaf art activity:

It’s low-cost
It helps us connect to nature.
Bonus: collecting leaves with young children adds extra meaning to this project, extending it into a nature walk.

The Benefits of “Leaves and Glue”

This activity will help children…

develop fine-motor skills
learn to work independently
build creative confidence through experimentation
Encourage creative thinking
build an eye for aesthetics by developing a composition
develop a broader understanding of upcycling materials (i.e. leaves) as art supplies

Supplies: Leaves and Glue

Leaves
Chip board or card board
A sturdy paintbrush
Shallow bowl or plate filled with glue

Step One: Clear Your Table

Remove any distractions that will take your child’s focus away from the creative invitation. Create a set-up that looks something like our photo (above).

Arrange the leaves artfully to make this appeal to your child’s aesthetic sensibility.

Once the table is “set,” ask your child if he or she would like to use/explore/experiment with these supplies.

Challenges and Critical Thinking

One of the exciting challenges in this prompt relates to gluing down bumpy, twisted, and generally non-compliant leaves. If your child is frustrated by the non-flat quality of your leaves, or has difficulty gluing them down, this is an opportunity to tease out solutions. You could say something like, “Hmmm, I see you’re having trouble attaching the leaf to the paper. What could we do to help it stick better?” From that, ideas such as “add more glue” or “turn the leaf over” might emerge.

Variations:

Replace leaves with paper cut into leaf shapes, circles, rectangles, etc.
Tint the glue with a little bit of food coloring or liquid watercolors
Before you set up the invitation, go on a leaf hunt together to collect your materials

Creative Table: Tree Trunk Leaf Collage

By Rachelle

This Creative Table prompt invites you to use simple materials that you can easily gather on a walk and from basic supplies in your home.

Supplies

Paper
Marker or other drawing tool
Bowl of white glue
Paint brush
Fallen Leaves, gathered on a walk

Start with a Nature Walk

No trees were harmed for this project as we gathered leaves that had already fallen to the ground.

The Set Up

Clear the table

Draw a basic trunk structure on the paper. Don’t worry about perfection

Place the leaves, bowl of glue, and brush around the paper

Invite your child to create

More Ideas

Add markers or crayons and invite your child to add texture to the tree

Draw leaves or other ideas from their imagination

Draw a bird shape and offer feathers rather than leaves

Drawing Prompt: Fill a Frame

By Rachelle

It’s no secret that my family likes to draw, and we’re always playing with ways to make drawing more entertaining. We often do this “fill a frame” activity in our sketchbooks while traveling or while waiting for food in restaurants, but it’s also easy to set up anywhere. All you need is paper and drawing supplies.

This project falls under the Creative Table Project, a series of simple art and science prompts that encourage creative thinking skills and experimentation.

In a nutshell, you set up the materials and then invite your child to create.

Drawing Prompt: Fill a Frame

Supplies

See our full list of recommended supplies for more kid-friendly materials. Note: This list includes affiliate links

Paper: We used Neenah Exact Index (card stock). I love this versatile, heavy-weight paper

Black Pen: I enjoyed using a Sharpie for this project

Crayons, colored pencils, or markers: I set up Waldorf “Lyra” colored pencils and my daughter chose to use Crayola washable markers

The Set-up

Pre-draw frames on a sheet of paper
Set the frames up next to a container of markers or crayons
Invite your child to create
Feel free to co-create or use your free time to work on your own project

I set ours up with colored pencils, and my daughter swapped them for her favorite markers. With set-ups like these, follow your child’s interests. If they have an idea that’s different from what you had in mind, as long as it’s safe, it’s 100% okay!

Related to this project, my friend Agnes recently launched a company called Plaeful, and they make erasable, washable frame decals that you can stick right up on your wall. We have one in our busy hallway, and I’m always catching my kids filling it in with designs, stories, and color.

Check out Plaeful.

Art Prompt: How to Make an Animal Mask out of Paper

By Rachelle

I recently set up this mask-making activity up for my five-year old and loved seeing how she added details and personality to the animal mask template. This project falls under the Creative Table Project, a series of simple art and science prompts that encourage creative thinking skills and experimentation.

In a nutshell, you set up the materials and then invite your child to create.

How to Make an Animal Mask out of Paper

Supplies

See our full list of recommended supplies for more kid-friendly materials. Note: This list includes affiliate links

Card stock or other heavy paper

Child scissors: blunt, pointed, left-handed

Hole Punch

Elastic String or yarn/ribbon

Markers or Crayons: We use Crayola here

The Set-up

There are plenty of ways to set this up.

Older children: If your child is old enough to use a paper punch and cut with scissors, here’s your set-up:

Fold your paper in half.
Pre-draw the shape of half of an animal face the paper. Be sure the center of the face is along the folded edge.
Set the paper up on a table with markers and scissors.
Invite your child to cut the mask out of the paper and then design and create an animal.
Punch holes for the elastic, tie the elastic on, and wear!

Younger children: If you have a toddler or preschooler who isn’t ready for scissors yet, try this:

Fold your paper in half.
Pre-draw the shape of half of an animal face the paper. Be sure the center of the face is along the folded edge.
Cut the mask out of the paper
Place the mask and markers or crayons on the table and invite your child to design and create
Punch holes for the elastic, tie the elastic on, and wear!

For more easy art prompts and set-ups like this, visit The Creative Table Project.

And if you try this project or invent a creative prompt of your own, join me on Instagram with the hashtags: #tinkerlab and #creativetable

a Quick Creative Table™ Survey

By Rachelle

If you’ve been with TinkerLab for a bit of time, you may remember when I introduced the Creative Table Challenge a few years ago. Since then, I’ve posted a series of Creative Table prompt ideas as inspiration for setting up provocations and invitations to create at home and school.

Since then, I’ve received a lot of questions about these prompts, so I’m pulling a couple exciting projects together around this idea. I’m excited to share them with you soon!

What questions do YOU have?

What burning questions do you have about invitations to create and provocations for the Creative Table? Maybe it’s about setting it up, making time for it, the age of your child or children, or the challenges you face with this type of project. Anything you have to share will be useful, and your name with be kept in confidentiality unless you give me permission to share it.

Thank you so much for taking time to fill this out!

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12 Easy Creative Table Prompts for Kids

By Rachelle

If you’re looking for a simple way to set up creative provocations that encourage curiosity and imagination, you will love the Creative Table™ Project. These activities won’t take a lot of time to set up, and while your child creates you can step back while they enjoy the process of exploration.

WHAT IS THE CREATIVE TABLE PROJECT?

The Creative Table™ Project invites you to share an image of a creative invitation, prompt, provocation, or set-up.

The creative table set-ups are simple: Clear a table, place the inspiring materials in an inviting arrangement, and invite a child to create.

There’s no right or wrong way about it. While we may have an idea about how the other person will use the materials, it’s ultimately up to the child to determine the outcome.

You can read more here for tips on how to set up these creative table provocations.