Our Autumn tree

The children have been very busy this week working on this craft project. I do it every year and this always brings a buzz of excitement in our classroom. As I mentioned in my previous post, we have been studying leaves at circle time as part of our Autumn theme: oak leaves, birch leaves, maple leaves etc... The children are learning to recognise them bit by bit and one little boy asked if we could "make" our own Autumn tree. I thought about it for a while and asked children how we could do it. Some thought about planting one but we all agreed it would take too long to grow. Some wanted to go and cut a tree down but we agreed it would kill the tree and it would be sad. As the children struggled, I suggested making  decided t our own leaves and our own tree. They used Autumn colors to paint and chose the leaves they liked the most. I drew them on their paintings and cut them off for them. I traced light veins on each of them. Then the children glued them onto a wooden peg and voila!! All that was left to do was to pick a branch or two in the garden, spray paint it slightly and place it in a container to hold up straight. See for yourself: