The kids and I tried our hands at leaf rubbings today! Oma and Grandad visited us this week on their way home from a multi-state trip and Oma brought L&L several different types of leaves they had collected. The leaves were already starting to become brittle, so this was a perfect way to get a little more “life” out of them and permanently preserve their beauty!
Lilah (3) and Luke (4) both had some trouble getting their leaf rubbings to “turn out” so I started demonstrating for them and before I knew it, I had filled three pages!! This is definitely an activity all ages can enjoy! L&L even got a lot of enjoyment out of just watching me model the technique.
All you have to do is put a leaf under your paper and rub a crayon on top.
After watching me for awhile and with a little help from Dad, L&L did start to get the hang of it.
We all thought it was pretty to overlap crayon colors on the rubbings.
I attempted to create a leaf person…
…and a flower.
You can see the veins of the leaves really well in the rubbings, so this is a perfect activity addition to a bigger thematic unit on leaves or trees!
Luke (4) also enjoyed just trying to draw what the leaf looked like freehand on his paper.
This is a really fun activity for Fall and it has the added bonus of being nearly FREE…all you need are crayons or pencils, paper, and leaves! We will definitely be doing this activity again so L&L can get some more practice with rubbings and learn more about leaves!
More Leaf Rubbing Ideas and Extensions:
* Plan a special nature walk to collect leaves before doing your rubbings.
* Do leaf rubbings as a play date activity or as a family.
* Try to collect leaves from different trees. Identify them using a tree guide book. Make rubbings and label what types of trees they came from. Create your own leaf ID book.
* Teach your child the parts of a leaf. Label them on your rubbing.
* Create leaf rubbing designs.
* Make lots of leaf rubbings. Cut out the textured parts and create a collage.
* Use your leaf rubbings to create greeting cards for Fall.
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