Laminate a Leaf: making a fall mobile

The colors of fall are so fabulous, I love bringing some of that cheer into the house (especially since it’s now getting dark at 5:00pm!).  Today my nieces and I picked out some pretty leaves to laminate and use as decorations and a fabulous fall mobile!

First came a trip to the park, where we picked out leaves that were “pretty and flat”!

Next, I cut the stems off the leaves and my niece arranged them on the laminate plastic.  She had to make sure they were all on the sheet, and they weren’t touching each other, so this was good practice with fine motor skills and spatial reasoning.  Of course we also talked about how many leaves she had and what colors they were.  You’ve got to love sneaky learning!

I used my laminator to laminate the leaves (I call it the “laminator of love” because I got it for Valentine’s Day). It makes the leaves nice and flat, and the colors really pop!  I thought cutting the leaves out might be a bit much for a 3 year old, so I did that part.

Some of the leaves I stuck around the boarder of an old window where I’m displaying fall art work.  You can find the instructions for making the puzzle piece trees here, if you’re interested.

The other leaves I punched holes in and tied them to a stick to make a colorful fall mobile.  It was hard to get a good photo of, but it’s actually pretty neat looking!

How do you bring the outdoors in during this lovely season?

Linked up with Mom’s Libraryy