Toddler Art Class: Leaf Punching

Shaped punches and an unusual medium can make for very absorbing play.

Art Project: Punching shapes from fall leaves
Supplies:
a variety of hole punches (someone loaned me the set pictured below. Similar here. But any type of hole punch will work)
leaves (I gathered mine in early fall before they got crunchy but after they'd turned colors)
glue sticks
heavyweight paper

Book:   

Leaves / Stein, David Ezra

Music to make art by:

 Through the Woods/ Okee Dokee Brothers

 The Inspiration: Color me Katie, Grow Creative

 What Kids Do: punch shapes from leaves and glue them onto paper (both the leaves and the shapes)

other activities included putting the shapes back into the leaf holes like a puzzle:

exploring the stickiness of glue:

punching holes in the paper:

tearing leaves:

collecting all the punches in a pile:

and creating a herd of cows (note the careful pairing so each has a friend):

one artist was feeling very independent and didn't want instruction on how to use the punches, so I encouraged him to just explore and figure it out on his own. Although I was fascinated to see all the alternatives he came up with, it was challenging to sit on my hands and not say, "here's how you do it!"  But check it out:
1. punch it by pressing the back plastic slidey thing onto the leaf.

 2. Place the entire punch on top of the leaf.

 3. Try pressing harder.

 4. Try a different leaf.

Such great opportunities to observe the process of thinking in this young one!

There were a number of kids who worked on this project for a LONG time and their parents were excited to go home and find a hole punch so they could continue this play at home. 

Hindsight Tip: one of the trickier bits was extracting the shape once it had been punched. In a few instances, a toothpick was helpful.

 Variations to try: 

You could try giving the kids only regular, circle hole punches and read the Very Hungry Caterpillar

Adult Challenge: Big Hands off the Art! (let the kids do what they want to and don't make their art for them!