Beyond the Book: Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert

Check out Leaf Man from your local library!

 We checked out Lois Ehlert's Leaf Man from our local library and loved it! It has gorgeous illustrations (typical to Ehlert's work) and a beautiful, flowing story line. We took our reading beyond the book with some fun with process art and nature exploration.
Here's a peek at some of our activities in relation to this wonderful Autumn-themed book:

We started off with a stroll through a nearby park. In addition to some
larger leaves, pine cones, seed pods and nuts of all kinds, we collected tiny leaves on masking tape bracelets. This wonderful method of nature collecting was suggested in Trish Kuffner's The Toddler's Busy Book.

 Without giving instructions or an example, I set out a recycled container of glue and a brush along with a tray of some of the most unique and colorful leaves we found on our nature walk. He had at it! Older children might have fun actually creating animals and people with the leaves. My little one had a great time gluing them on the paper and I resisted the urge to point out when they happened to take shape of animals I recognized! To best preserve collages made with leaves, you may wish to press/dry them beforehand and/or laminate the finished product. Left naturally, the leaves with dry and curl and likely crumble over time.

I laminated my son's bracelet from our nature walk, cut it out and attached a yarn tassel to make a keepsake bookmark he can use in his homeschool journal.  

With some of the other leaves we found, I created and laminated my own Leaf Man to use for story telling and play. Now I must resist the urge to make a whole Leaf Family...

 Autumn is a great time to explore the glorious colors of nature hands-on in your own backyard or front yard studio. We took a collection of nature's "paint brushes" in the form of pine needles, seed pods, leaves, pine cones and even a real paintbrush (at my son's request) outside along with a large sheet of craft paper and a tray of Autumn colors to mix and explore with. Again, in favor of encouraging process art, I left out instructions and examples. When at first my son seemed hesitant, my husband and I joined him in trying out some of the "brushes" in the paint. We didn't verbalize directions or our own ideas and before long, he was confident to dig in! The different strokes and prints of our Autumn nature collection was amazing and the ideas that inspired my little one's art and play in the time we spent with this activity even more incredible!
He started off using different leaves as brushes on paper and rolling the pine cone in the paint to make prints.

Then he took a whirl at painting the pine cone with his paintbrush! We brought the colorful creation inside to dry and decorate
 our home for the season.

He especially loved painting with this pine needle brush...

Which led to a game of sweeping and painting the lawn as well!

We had such a wonderful time taking Leaf Man beyond the book. I've especially loved the opportunity to include more process art in our homeschooling this week as well as the invitation to take our learning and play outdoors as the season change envelopes us with color, texture, and all kinds of inspiration! Happy playing, creating and exploring!