35 Super Fun Leaf Activities for Preschoolers

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It’s time to have fun with leaves! Make a leaf mask or a pompom tree and then have some messy play fun with a leaf soup!

9 Easy Leaf Crafts for Kids to Make and Other Learning Activities

Fall is in the air! Have your leaves started turning golden yet? This week I’ve rounded up some easy leaf crafts for kids to make, some by themselves and some with a little help from you. We can’t wait to make a leaf mask and the leaf soup looks like great fun!

And as usual I’ve thrown in some links to fine and gross motor skills, leaf themed printables, books and yummy snacks so you have everything you need for a leaf themed Tot School for your toddler or preschooler!

Don’t forget to scroll all the way to the end so you don’t miss any of the fabulous ideas, and be sure to pin your favourites as you go so you can find them again later!

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Easy Leaf Crafts for Kids to Make

Crafts are a great way to develop fine motor skills and creativity and at the end of the session your child will have created something they can show to daddy or their grandparents. These are some of my favourite easy leaf crafts for kids:

Fall Watercolor Leaf Art for Preschoolers

These watercolour leaves are just beautiful and the kiddos can practice their fine motor skills with the eye droppers. (via Teaching 2 and 3 Year Olds)

Fall Pom Pom Tree – Fine Motor Activity

This Fall pom pom tree is adorable, and once they’ve had a chance to practice their fine motor skills putting it together it will be perfect to use in Small World Play. (via Play Trains!)

DIY Leaf Mask

This leaf mask is absolutely adorable. What better leaf craft is there than one you can wear? (via Small + Friendly)

Invitation to Create: Fall Sticky Trees

I love these conical leaf trees, and they look like they’re a lot fun to make too! (via Twodaloo)

Mason Jar Fall Luminaries Craft

These mason jars look beautiful all lit up in the evening and while you have to be careful because of the glass they are simple enough for the toddlers to make alongside older children. (via Where Imagination Grows)

Painting Leaves

Leaf collecting is such a fun activity, and then you can come home and paint the leaves. Don’t these look beautiful? (via Simple Fun for Kids)

Leaf Chalk Art

Or you could use chalk to decorate them! Combine this activity with the leaf paining one above and your child can explore the different ways to decorate a leaf. (via Coffee Cups and Crayons)

Fall art project for kids: Leaf collages

Oh how fun is this little guy, or she might even be a gal! It would be a good idea to do this on contact paper so the leaves don’t fly away while your child is creating. (via Gift of Curiosity)

Autumn Leaf People. Autumn Kid’s Craft

And here’s another twist on making people out of leaves, except these are 3D thanks to the toilet paper tubes! (via Thimble and Twig)

Leaf books

In our house we have a rule that when a child comes to you with a book you stop what you’re doing and read it together. I’ve lost count of the number of times Master J and I have snuggled up on the kitchen floor to read a book when I’m in the middle of making dinner!

I do this because I love books and I want my children to share that passion. But there are also studies that show that a child who reads for enjoyment every day develops a broad vocabulary and general knowledge and should do better at school than those who don’t.

Here are some leaf themed books for you to read together:

Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf Leaf Man We’re Going on a Leaf Hunt Why Do Leaves Change Color? (Let’s-Read-and-Find-Out Science, Stage 2)

Leaf fine motor activities

Fine motor skills are an important part of your tot’s development, because without them they won’t be able to write, grasp small objects or fasten zips on their clothing.

Here are some wonderful leaf fine motor activities for them to have fun with:

Leaf Rubbing Art & Science Activity

A wonderful idea for fine motor skill practice with a bit of science thrown in! (via Edventures with Kids)

Button Threading

A fun way to practice button skills, and a twist on the traditional button snake. (via Along the Way)

Autumn Crafts For Toddlers – Leaf Sewing

A nice big maple leaf makes the perfect sewing activity for little fingers. (via Kids Craft Room)

Autumn Activities – Autumn Leaf Threading

This is a wonderful threading activity where your tot can make a wind chime to hang up in the breeze. (via Picklebums)

Fall Clothespin Tree

This activity will test out those tiny muscles and looks like so much fun. (via Stir the Wonder)

Autumn Salt Dough Recipe

We love dough activities for fine motor practice and this is a yummy smelling salt dough recipe that can then be used for cutting out leaf shapes, or making leaf print patterns. (via The Imagination Tree)

Leaf gross motor activities

We must not forget about helping develop the larger muscles needed for gross motor skills and encouraging climbing, running, crawling and jumping. Here are some wonderful leaf gross motor activities to get your little one up and moving.

A leafy game – I love this idea for a leafy relay race, to practice running as well as colour sorting!
Raking leaves – Your little one will have fun raking leaves into a big pile and then jumping into them!

Leaf printables

To help develop numeracy and literacy skills you can use one of the many free printable packs that are shared by other mums. Here are some leaf printables:

Leaf sensory tubs and small world play

Sensory tubs are a brilliant way to encourage learning through invitation to play. Little ones can explore their senses as well as practicing pouring and measuring, counting and patterning. There is also an opportunity for small world play too as they explore and comprehend the world around them. Here are some brilliant ideas for leaf sensory tubs and small world play:

Fall Leaves Soup {Water Sensory Play}

This takes sensory play to a whole new level – I think my kiddos will have a blast playing with this soup! (via And Next Comes L)

Under the Fall Tree Small World

I love this invitation to play, especially how Chelsey attached the tree to the wall to set the scene. (via Buggy and Buddy)

Fall Sensory Bin

I love how some googly eyes and a couple of clothes pegs turns leaves into characters. (via Creekside Learning)

Fall Sensory Play for Toddlers

I can’t wait to give this a try, it just looks like a lot of gloopy fun! (via Fun at Home with Kids)

Leaf Sensory Bin

The addition of the magnetic letters and the acorns makes this a wonderful bin to explore. (via Teaching Mama)

Fall Math Activities

This small world activity is so simple to set up, I love the idea of adding in a paint brush and adding numbers to the leaves for older kiddos. (via Kids Play Box)

Leaf snacks

All this learning is enough to make anyone hungry, so why not fix one of these tasty leaf snacks to enjoy together:

Fall leaves sugar cookies – You can have fun making these cookies together, and then eating them too!
Easy tree snack – Let your little one have fun making a tree that they can eat at snack time.
Tree snack – Here’s another idea for an edible tree snack.
Fall tree snack – Your tot might eat a lot of snacks that look like trees this week… but I love how this one actually stands up!

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