Kids corner
Autumn leaves fun
Our Kids' Corner contributor - Jane Byrne's activity this month shows how to be creative with autumn leaves!
Autumn is well and truly here! It is such a beautiful season.
Let’s go for a walk around the garden or the local park and have fun looking at and collecting glorious autumn leaves.
Have a look at how many different shapes, colors and textures you can find, does your leaf have a fragrance?
Let’s sort out our leaf collection. Think about different ways that you could sort your leaves, maybe by color, size, texture or tree type.
When you are collecting your leaves check if you can see which tree your leaf has fallen from? Look at the leaf, the color and shape, can you find a match? Can it be identified? Is it a gum leaf, gingko, tree pansy, banksia, tea tree, maple?
Place your leaves onto a piece of plain paper and draw around the outside shape.
What can you see on the leaf?
Study the veins in the leaf. Do they make a pattern?
What texture is the leaf? Is it smooth, hairy, or waxy?
Measure the length and width of the leaf. Sort them from the smallest to the biggest. Is there a bottom and top to the leaf? Sort the leaves into colors.
Take a closer look with a magnifying glass, see what you can find on the surface of the leaf.
Is there a stalk attached to the leaf? What can you see, what does it remind you of, what does it make you wonder?
You can extend this fun activity by doing leaf rubbings, which are great fun to do. All you need is some oil pastels, some thin paper and leaves. Place the leaf under the paper and using the oil pastel on its side, rub firmly across the leaf.
A great app to have on your phone is Google Lens. You can hover the app over your leaf and it can help you identify which tree your leaf belongs to.
Happy autumn fossicking.
We would love to see what you do so don’t forget to send in your photos of your creations to operations@opengardensvictoria.org.au
To select one of our Kids corner activities, click on our past activities link below.
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