Ideal Bite

Crafts with Leaves

Branching Out

10.23.2009

Submitted by alara on Thu, 10/22/2009 - 11:00pm.

The Bite:

Wanna get your kids outta their comfort zone - i.e., away from the TV? Before the weather turns too chilly, try something new: Make crafts with fallen leaves. It's a great way to teach 'em about nature (not to mention clean up your lawn for mulch) without, um, going out on a limb.

The Benefits:

Even biodegradable trash like leaves (especially packed in plastic) won't break down in landfills. Simple: Kids gathering 'em up for crafts (or mulch) = smaller landfills.
Crafts that incorporate nature motivate kids to venture outside for environmental edu. Fallen leaves are the perfect starting point for explaining the lifecycle of trees.
No need to reach into your wallet, these crafts are easy and cheap.

Wanna Try:

Leaf Pressed Bookmark - lay leaves flat, between pieces of newspaper and stack books on top, overnight; sandwich leaves between pieces of soy wax paper and iron on low setting for 10 seconds to seal; trim excess paper, leaving a margin around the leaves.
Fall Leaf Mobile - cross two branches and tie in the middle with raffia; tie or glue string of different lengths to pressed leaves (see above directions), then tie or glue to branches.
Autumn Tree Craft - on a piece of scratch paper or old artwork, trace from the elbow, along the arm, around the hand and down the other side to make a tree; attach leaves to cover the finger branches.
Leaf Rubbing - perfect for even the littlest leaf collector; grab your crayons and paper, cover the leaf and rub to make an impression; mulch or compost leaves after.
Cornstarch Leaf Impressions - create stunning autumn leaf impressions with a little cornstarch and baking soda; compost or mulch the leaves after.

Timeout

Mama Biter Laura Kochik and Ruby, 2, love collecting colored leaves for their scrapbook. Cardiff, CA, has few maple trees, but the palms are a pretty substitute.

Bang For The Bite

If 10,000 Mama Biters and their kids make crafts or mulch out of one bag of leaves instead of sending it in plastic to the dump, we'll keep the weight of 4,000 5-year-olds in trash out of landfills.

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