Toddler Art Class: Foil Leaf Rubbings

A pre-cursor to crayon leaf rubbings, this project needs only two ingredients--foil and leaves.

Art Project: Foil Leaf Rubbings
Supplies:
foil
leaves (not too crunchy)

Book:
  Red leaf, yellow leaf / Ehlert, Lois 

 What Kids Do: 
Some kids actually made leaf rubbings: 

 It was helpful to have someone hold the foil still while the kids ran their fingers over the surface.

 A few things other than leaves were tried:

 Some tried making the rubbings with the leaf on top of the foil.

 There was also a lot of foil sculpting.

 And leaf tearing.

 As well as a few games of leaf peek-a-boo (totally delightful!).

 Wrapping the leaves up in foil was popular.

 This participant made a foil vase for their leaves.

 A few kids who needed larger full-body motion went outside to gather more leaves....

 And were thrilled to watch them float down after flinging them into the air back inside.

Hindsight Tip:  Be sure to reassure parents that the traditional leaf rubbing project is only one way for the kids to interact with the materials.  You might want to mention some of the other possibilities that they might try (see above) and reiterate that those activities are all acceptable ways to interact with the materials provided.

Variations to try: 

Bring in pine needles, a greater variety of leaves or feathers if you want to add more variety.

Related App: Leafsnap -- one feature of this nicely-designed free app is that you can take a photo of a leaf and it will tell you what tree it came from and information about that tree.