Material: Leaves

The Foil Texture Rubbing

The Foil Texture Rubbing

Steps:

  • Use your glue to stick a few coins, buttons, and dry leaves onto a flat piece of cardboard.
  • Wait for the glue to dry so the objects are firmly in place.
  • Tear off a sheet of aluminum foil large enough to cover the cardboard.
  • Place the foil over the objects and use your ‘helper hand’ to hold the edges down firmly.
  • Use your dominant hand to gently rub your fingertips over the foil until you feel the shapes beneath.
  • Pick up a crayon and use the side of the tip to rub across the raised areas of the foil.
  • Watch as the detailed textures of the coins and leaves magically appear on the shiny surface!
  • Use your markers to add colorful details around the textured prints you created.

Safety Tip:
Adult supervision is recommended to ensure the edges of the foil are handled gently. Make sure all glue is dry before applying the foil.

Pizza Party

Preparation:

Retrieve the following items:

  1. Homemade playdough
  2. Red paint
  3. Spoon
  4. Topping (i.e. leaves, buttons, pompoms, etc.)

Play:

Have the child:

  1. Roll the playdough into a ball (encourage the child to use both hands when rolling the dough to work on bilateral coordination).
  2. Flat the ball to create the base of the pizza.
  3. Smear the red paint (i.e. “pizza sauce”) with a spoon or with their finger.
  4. Tear up tiny dough pieces to create the cheese.
  5. Sprinkle the cheese and toppings on the pizza.
  6. Garnish with leaves.

Enjoy playing with this pretend pizza!

Tip: After you are finished playing with the pretend pizza, fold it in half and use the fork to press down the edges to make a pretend empanada!

 

Fall Crunchy Art

Gather dry leaves.

Use both hands to crunch the dry leaves into smaller pieces. This helps promote bilateral hand use, tactile perception, and auditory input.

On a piece of construction paper, use glue to create a shape or drawing. We choose the heart shape but you can use a smiley face, a house shape, letters, numbers, etc. Working on grading the force on the glue bottle addresses the proprioceptive system.

Transfer the crunched dry leaves pieces onto the construction paper covering the wet glue shape.

Let dry for a few minutes and shake off the leaves that remained unglued.

Use markers to decorate.

Acorn Stamper

Acorn Stamp

Draw an acorn on the construction paper (see images for example) or you can let the child trace an acorn stencil to promote fine motor control and visual-motor skills.

Let the child cut the acorn shape using scissors.

Using a piece of small sponge instruct the child to pinch it and dip it into the paint then stamp and paint the bottom part of the acorn cut out. You can also use q-tips or cotton balls to paint.

Encourage the child to fill in the entire bottom part of the acorn.

Have the child spread glue on the top part of the acorn.

Provide the child with a few dry leaves. Instruct the child to crumble the leaves inside the palm of his hand and then spread them on the glue. This will promote finger strength and finger translation.

You may also use beans to cover the top area of the acorn.

Fall Leaves

Use a brown construction paper and draw a rectangle to be used as the tree’s trunk.

Let the child cut out the rectangle to promote visual motor skills.

Ask the child to glue the brown rectangle on piece of white construction paper.

Using the crayons or markers, have the child draw a few branches coming out of the trunk of the tree on the white construction paper.

Instruct the child to mark a few dots using the glue on each branch.

Place some leaves on the table on the child’s non dominant side.

Provide the child with tweezers or tongs and have him catch one leaf at a time and move across the midline to place it on top of a glue dots.

Repeat until all leaves are glued on the tree.