How to Make Leaf Animals
Very few children dislike playing outdoors, especially when they have an exciting mission to fulfill. If your kids need some encouragement to play outside, a leaf scavenger hunt may do the trick. Challenge your kids to find as many different kinds of leaves as they can. When finished, take them inside to create leaf animal portraits. These colorful pictures encourage creativity and offer a quiet activity after all of the outdoor excitement.
Instructions
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Pick up as many pliable, colorful leaves as you can find. Brittle, dry leaves don't work as well for art because they crumble easily when you try to work them. Pluck the leaves directly from trees, if necessary. Don't take more than three from any one branch.
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Spread out the leaves and examine the colors and shapes. Think about what kinds of animals look like your leaves. Long, thin, green leaves could create an angular snake while a large, orange maple leaf may become a lion's mane. Red leaves could be cardinal feathers.
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Arrange and rearrange your leaves until you find the right configuration for your animal.
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Carefully pick up your leaves, one at a time, and glue them to the card stock. Gently flatten the leaves and hold them down for several seconds to ensure they stick.
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Allow the leaf animals to dry overnight.
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Tips & Warnings
Create these animals for original wall art.
If you don't have the right leaves to create certain features, like faces or tails, draw the animal on the stock, color it with watercolors and then glue your leaves into place.
References
- Photo Credit Photos.com/Photos.com/Getty Images
