Preschool Fall Activities - Part 2

Well, this one is probably a little late to do in many areas, but can be done in some areas all year long.

Activity 2 - Leaf Rubbings! Yeah! One of those all time favorites of mine and many, many others I know. The trick to this activity is you need either still on the tree leaves or ones that have just fallen. We picked a variety earlier this past week, but by the next day and especially the day after the leaves were a bit too crunch to work with. Luckily, we still have some available in the neighborhood and parks to choose from.

Some like to put the leaves between two pieces of everyday usage white paper, while others like to tape them down (which I recommend for smaller participants) to keep from moving around too much. We have so many crayons with the paper peeled that there were lots of colors to choose from. We did find the triangle crayons not as good for rubbings as the basic big ole' fat washable ones. The skinny ones work well too, but these are not as easily washable, so beware of the surface being worked on.

One of the things we do with this activity is talk about the leaf life cycle and reasons behind the color changes. In some areas, like where my sister lives in California they don't lose their leaves, but rather go through at least two "blooming" seasons like her lemon and orange trees. Again, lots of age appropriate books at the library can be used to supplement the activity or not. Just doing the rubbings is fun enough and provides lots of great memories.