easy fall craft for kids

This weekend I wanted to do a Fall craft with the kids. We spent most of our day indoors on Saturday because Erik was outside building our new backyard play set! Ready on Sunday and worth the wait!

 Gift from Papa, Built by Daddy

Warning: Attracts Neighborhood Kids! 

In the morning, I sent Luciana outside looking for leaves of assorted shapes and sizes. With this activity, color didn't really matter but it was a good topic of conversation when Luciana was explaining to me the life cycle of trees and leaves.  My nephew Ezekiel came over while my mom went out to run errands, so it was good to have the three older kids sitting down at the table and not running around making messes at will. This craft is super easy and they had a lot of fun doing it. So, what was it? Remember the ol' shading over leaves trick? You know, where you put a piece of paper over a leaf, grab a crayon or pencil and shade to your heart's content? Yeah, that one. I used the following materials:

• plain white printer paper
• "Fall" colored crayons (orange, brown, red, yellow, etc)
• scissors
• glue
• "Fall" colored construction paper
• 3 eager kids + 1 crayon eating baby

So, they sat down, picked their favorite leaf and got busy. I helped my nephew and Emme but they did most by picking the leaves, their favorite colored crayon, and holding the paper. I just moved their arms back and forth "helping" them shade. Even the baby made one! Luciana was able to get the hang of it after a few tries. She quickly learned the harder you shade, the more your leaf stands out. We did this many times and got many leaves. Then I cut them out while they colored other pictures and lost 12 or so marker lids from my craft box. After I cut out plenty of leaves, the kids helped me glue them to a piece of construction paper. We labeled it "FALL" and added their names because they are all so very possessive. Mine! Of course, my nephew accidentally left his after making sure we all knew that particular one was his about 8 or 9 times. Little cutie pie. All in all, the kids had a great time, it was easy to clean up, I didn't lose my mind, and now I have some cute Fall artwork to frame for my seasonal home decor. Score!