Sponge-Painted Leaves

We started our Fall theme today! I love fall and I have so many cool projects to share with you this week. First up is beautiful leaves. I traced a few different kinds of leaves onto paper and put out red, yellow and orange paint with sponges. The kids dipped the sponges in the paint and blotted their paper with them.

I had them each make two (the second being the flip side of the first so they would match up when I put them together). They didn't have to worry about staying in the lines because I was planning on cutting them out.

When they were dry, I cut them out and matched them up back to back and stapled them. Tape or glue would work as well, but the edges got pretty curly so I felt staples would be best. If they didn't quite match up right, I just trimmed them.

Then I hung them off the lights on our ceiling so it looks like leaves are falling in our room!

I've been doing this project for years and it only occurred to me today as I was cutting them out to just have the kids paint plain paper and then trace a leaf shape on it afterward. That way you could cut both at once (back to back) and they would match up every time. Ahhh, next year...

Fun Fact: The red, orange and yellow color of leaves is always there, even in the summer. It is the chlorophyll in a plant's leaves that makes them look green. But in the fall, the chlorophyll breaks down and the green color begins to disappear. That's when the leaves' other colors show through.