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Learning with Leaves

May 22, 2013 by Kate 36 Comments

In Australia we have just experienced a really warm Autumn (Fall) season. It is always one of my favourite times of the year because the leaves are always so spectacular and it can feel like they are changing colour right before your eyes. It also opens up doors for great learning opportunities. 

My adorable niece and I thought we would go exploring and find some leaves we thought were particularly beautiful. It was tough because there were so many we could choose from.

Learning involved
Exploring the environment can be a great way to teach children about the changing of seasons and provides children with an opportunity to make observations whilst opening them up to making discussions, which further helps with language development. 


Here is our collection of leaves. My niece notes the various colours, sizes and shapes!

GAMES using LEAVES
It would be easy to turn this into a sorting or classifying game for children. 
  • ‘How many brown leaves can you collect in 2 minutes’ (counting)
  • ‘Order these leaves from smallest to largest’ (ordering and measurement)‘
  • ‘Which leaf would cover the largest/smallest area?’ (area)

Here is an example (bottom left) of leaves being used to make a shape of a square. This teaches children to really consider the sides and points of a shape. 

Great questions to ask – 
How many leaves do you need to make a square? 
Is that the same number you’d need to make a triangle? 
How do you know that you have the correct order?

I think it’s also important to give children freedom to take their learning where they want it to go. Here I simply supplied my niece with a black pen and allowed her to be creative. 






















Just look at her wonderful and creative drawings!! I really love that she has considered the shape of the leaves, using it as a frame for her picture. Brilliant!!!! We extended this activity by using the leaves in imaginative play and writing a stories. 

Here she is tracing over the veins of the leaf. 
“Wow, I can’t believe how many veins this leaf has!’ said my niece. 

I love when children are surprised by their own discoveries. 

______________________________________________

I couldn’t end this post without sharing with you a tree that I simply adore. 

It is down at my families holiday house and it warms my heart every time I look at it. It is absolutely massive and when you under it you can’t help but feel almost protected. 

Do you have a special place? 

Thanks for reading this post. 

Kate x
________________________________

Please leave a comment below. I love hearing from you. 

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Filed Under: 1 - 3 years, 3 - 5 years, 5 - 10 years, Art, Art & Craft

Comments

  1. Zahra Nawaz says

    May 22, 2013 at 4:45 am

    Lovely post Kate !! I loved all the ideas in it. Just need a kid big enough to try it on 🙂

    Reply
    • Kate Lloyd says

      May 23, 2013 at 2:17 am

      Thank you very much for commenting Zahra! So glad you enjoyed reading this. No doubt your little boy will be doing such activities soon.

      Reply
  2. Jay @ Learning to play and playing to learn says

    May 22, 2013 at 10:45 am

    We have been collecting leaves also, though none of ours are as nice as yours. I love your idea to draw on them, they look wonderful. I am going to suggest this to Cakes and see what creativity she can come up with. Thank you for the great idea!

    Reply
    • Kate Lloyd says

      May 23, 2013 at 2:18 am

      Thanks Jay. It’s all about giving them the opportunity so I hope you get a chance to let me know how little Cakes goes with maybe drawing on some leaves. My niece found it great fun.

      Reply
  3. Deborah Alter-Rasche says

    May 22, 2013 at 10:48 am

    What a gorgeous post Kate. Love it!!

    Reply
    • Kate Lloyd says

      May 23, 2013 at 2:19 am

      Thank you Debs. I think I’m starting to find my groove. LOL

      Reply
  4. Kate Gribble says

    May 22, 2013 at 11:32 am

    We love autumn here too. Love walking in the crisp air and running in the leaves. It’s so beautiful, isn’t it? I’m really looking forward to seeing Jack and Sarah when they are this age and the creative adventures they get up to 🙂

    Reply
    • Kate Lloyd says

      May 23, 2013 at 2:20 am

      Absolutely. Autumn would be one of my favourite times of the year. With a great mum like you your Jack and Sarah will no doubt be having lots of great adventures.

      Reply
  5. Rez P says

    May 22, 2013 at 12:43 pm

    I like the leaf drawing. Very creative!
    Such a sweet post, I love the array of colours in fallen leaves 🙂
    Thanks for sharing

    Reply
    • Kate Lloyd says

      May 23, 2013 at 2:21 am

      Thank you so much for commenting Rez. It was a great post to write and my niece enjoyed the experience so much that it felt quite effortless. What a beautiful collection of leaves around our area. 🙂

      Reply
  6. Erin D says

    May 22, 2013 at 1:42 pm

    I love it! Pinning it now.

    Reply
    • Kate Lloyd says

      May 23, 2013 at 2:22 am

      Thank you very kindly Erin. I appreciate the comment and that you like it enough to share it with others. 🙂

      Reply
  7. Bekka Joy says

    May 23, 2013 at 9:12 am

    Beautiful! 🙂 This post is just amazing! Love the images and all that Autumn brings on! 🙂 x

    Reply
    • Kate Lloyd says

      May 23, 2013 at 1:24 pm

      It is one of my favourite times of the year. The leaves we found were amazing!!!

      Reply
  8. Easy Peasy Kids says

    May 24, 2013 at 5:59 pm

    Loving autumn, will be doing some of these great leaves activities with the little ones at work.

    Reply
    • Kate Lloyd says

      May 28, 2013 at 11:21 am

      Wonderful to hear thank you Nathalie. I hope you are well.

      Reply
  9. Penny Whitehouse says

    May 24, 2013 at 9:29 pm

    What a beautiful activity, oh and I love the questions you posed too, they were really cool. I can imagine Miss Poss scrambling to get as many leaves in two minutes as she could. That would be soo fun to see!

    Reply
    • Kate Lloyd says

      May 28, 2013 at 11:22 am

      It turns it into a physical activity too! LOL
      I’d be really puffed.

      Reply
  10. Jodie Clarke says

    May 25, 2013 at 9:52 am

    Such lovely pics…made me feel glad we are in Autumn!!So many wonderful learning activities from a simple little leaf..Wish we had all of those colours here xx

    Reply
    • Kate Lloyd says

      May 28, 2013 at 11:23 am

      We were very lucky to find the wonderful leaves that we did. It’s nice they aren’t too far from home.

      Reply
  11. Patricia @ Lessons In Homeschooling says

    May 25, 2013 at 1:56 pm

    Do you know what kind of tree your favorite is? We have Eucalyptus trees growing around our property and it always makes me feel like I’m in Australia. What great ideas for kids.

    Reply
    • Kate Lloyd says

      May 28, 2013 at 11:24 am

      Oh that is a really terrific question Patricia. I’m not very good at knowing the names of trees and other plants. I was thinking it is an elm but I could be wrong. You have me very curious. Thanks. 🙂
      Eucalyptus trees are wonderful. Have you tried to play their leaves like a kazoo?

      Reply
  12. Happy Whimsical Hearts says

    May 26, 2013 at 1:28 am

    Autumn is such a beautiful time of year. It always brings back fond memories of going to the park with my mum when I was a little tacker, and we would kick and crunch the leaves. Playing with leaves is great fun, I really like the drawings on the leaves 🙂

    Reply
    • Kate Lloyd says

      May 28, 2013 at 11:25 am

      Thank you Kelly. I loved to do running jumps into leaves when I was small. Such great memories.

      Reply
  13. Jackie@My Little Bookcase says

    May 26, 2013 at 11:26 am

    Cammy is currently obsess with collecting leaves while I put Ike into his car seat. I’ll have to time her next time and see how many she can collect.

    P.S. Your blog is looking amazing.

    P.P.S. Thanks for adding Name/Url- so much easier to comment now

    Reply
    • Kate Lloyd says

      May 28, 2013 at 11:25 am

      Thank you so much for your lovely comments Jackie. You have been a massive help.

      Reply
  14. Boy Mama Teacher Mama says

    May 27, 2013 at 4:12 am

    So many good ideas for autumn. As we are just heading into summer here, I will tuck away all these ideas for September when the leaves start changing here. 🙂

    Reply
    • Kate Lloyd says

      May 28, 2013 at 11:26 am

      Great idea! We are in winter at the moment and the leaves will no doubt start to bud soon after.

      Reply
  15. Karyn Tripp says

    June 1, 2013 at 2:18 pm

    LOVE this!! Thanks for linking to Share it Saturday. I featured you this morning 🙂

    Reply
  16. Ness @ One Perfect Day says

    August 31, 2013 at 1:10 pm

    That tree is beautiful! What a great idea to draw on the leaves. I love the one with the little man on it and how wonderful drawing over the leaf veins like that. Pinning this to do with R this week.

    Reply
  17. MIAN says

    July 10, 2017 at 8:23 pm

    Hey! Kate!!!!thanks for the amazing post! We played falling leaves today in our preschool . The kids had sommuch crazy time 🙂

    Reply
    • Kate says

      July 10, 2017 at 10:39 pm

      That’s so wonderful Mian! Thanks for sharing. 🙂

      Reply
  18. Steve says

    June 20, 2020 at 10:26 pm

    Thank you for this information, I appreciate your effort, please keep us update.

    Reply
    • Kate says

      June 24, 2020 at 10:21 am

      You’re welcome! Be sure to subscribe for future updates.

      Reply

Trackbacks

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    June 3, 2015 at 12:30 am

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  2. Share It Saturday - Nature Activities for Kids - Laughing Kids Learn says:
    June 23, 2015 at 11:22 pm

    […] here are a few classics from Laughing Kids Learn  Learning with Leaves & Painting with […]

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Hello and welcome!
My name is Kate and I am a mum to two little girls, Possum and Boo. We have lots of fun together learning with play at home and are pleased to share some of what we do with you.
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