Fall Leaf Nature Crafts and Activities for Kids
Easy Nature Inspired Fall Leaf Activities
Kids love collecting a colorful assortment of leaves during the fall season. The question is what do you do with all these lovely fall leaves you’ve gathered? Here are some simple Autumn activities and crafts using fall leaves to inspire you. These activities will encourage your family to get outside in nature and enjoy crisp fall days hiking and exploring. These activities and crafts need minimal to no prep, plus most materials and items are found in nature.
State Leaf Map
Creating a State Leaf Map can be done in any season, but is especially colorful in the fall. First collect a wide variety of leaves with differing shades and colors from your backyard. Then simply draw an outline shape of your specific state in the dirt with a stick or trace on the sidewalk with chalk. Allow children to fill in the map with leaves until the entire outline is covered. Check out this tutorial and video to see more.
To expand further, place a rock on your home town, or state capital. This is a wonderful activity to educate children in greater depth about their state and to help them recognize where they live.
Leaf Buntings
This activity will keep kids hands busy gathering and stringing leaves together to make leaf buntings. Simply collect a variety of leaves and poke a hole through each leaf using a pointed stick. Then string twine through each leaf, one by one. Display your nature creation around your house, porch or deck to add some nature inspired decorations. Another variation is to tie the stems to twine, tying them in varying heights for a lovely display. For younger children they may need additional help with tying.
Nature Mandalas
Mandala simply means "circle" in Sanskrit. The circular geometric designs represent the universe and in some cultures are an aid in meditation. A nature mandala is basically a type of design, figure, or pattern using materials in nature.
Creating these is a relaxing way to slow down in nature. You don’t have to limit yourself just to leaves. Prior to starting to form your pattern, make sure to gather a large amount of each unique material such as leaves, rocks, mushrooms, berries, flower petals, and pine needles. We have made nature mandalas in a number of different seasons including summer, fall, winter and spring. Need additional inspiration, check out these beautiful mandalas and helpful tips for creating your own mandalas and joining the nature mandala challenge.
Leaf Crowns
Creating a fall leaf crown is the perfect fall nature craft that your children and toddlers will enjoy. There are two variations of this beautiful crown that you can craft, depending on your children’s ages. Both our simple, no mess activities that can be done both inside or outside. Included is a simple fall explanation of why leaves change colors as you enjoy this easy Autumn activity.
Stick Mazes
This activity doesn’t actually use leaves, instead strip off the leaves or simply collect twigs and branches in the area. Locate a smooth, compact dirt or grassy area to start. Spend time collecting tons of twigs of various lengths. Once you’ve gathered enough, begin laying them out to create a maze. We discovered starting with the outer edges of the maze often works the best. Next fill in the center area. Make sure to include a start and finish line to your maze. Then allow each person to take a turn completing the maze.
Animal Shapes
A simple activity for younger children is to draw an outline of a animal, shape or object and allow them to use creativity to fill in with various leaves, flowers or petals.
Preserving Fall Leaves
Preserving Fall Leaves
Have you every wanted to keep fall leaves soft and supple, instead of having them crumble and dry out. Preserve beautiful fall leaves in glycerin to keep these bright colorful leaves all year long. Here is the Full Tutorial For Preserving Fall Leaves. Included is a simple fall explanation of why leaves change colors.
Decorate Walking Sticks
Materials Needed: sand paper/ sander, feathers, leaves, duck tape, beads, twine etc.
Create your own personalized hiking sticks to bring with you on your next adventures. Part of the fun is locating the perfect stick, ideally about shoulder high. Then sand it down and decorate it with leaves, feathers, duct tape, beads, etc. This is one of those crafts that is both practical and fun! This does require planning ahead to gather materials, here are all the details to make personalized hiking sticks.
Closing Thoughts
Snack Necklaces
We hope these fall leaf activities and crafts have inspired you to get outside and enjoy nature. It is amazing what creative endeavors and art we can craft when we spend time exploring and playing outside. Follow and subscribe to Discovering Anew for more activity ideas and camping reviews.
