Fall Tree with Clay Leaves

 

I’d been thinking about a way for E to create a fall tree, and I was inspired by Twodaloo’s Clay Smooshing activity to try something similar with pieces of tougher, fall colored clay.

 

(E was 33 months old.)

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You’ll need:

• Modeling clay.
• Paper.
• Marker (or other means of creating the tree trunk).
• Knife.

 

 

I cut orange, red, yellow and brown clay into little pieces, drew a tree trunk on a piece of paper {I’m not an artist but it did just fine 😉 } and explained to E how she could push the clay down on the paper to make leaves.

E got to work right away. 

 

She used different techniques to smoosh the bits of clay down, trying with more and less force to make her leaves stick. 

 

 

After a while and with a bunch of leaves down, E suddenly ran off and returned with a sheet of Easter stickers. Clearly, every fall tree needs some spring cheer 😉

 

Some more experimentation – this time with both hands and several pieces of clay at a time.

 

 

Finally, E decided to cover the Easter stickers with yellow clay leaves.

 

 

For a little alphabet break, E pulled out “Dr. Seuss’ ABC” – that’s just how she rolls these days 😉

 

Afterwards, she put the finishing touches on her fall tree

 

before getting out some of our homemade play dough, asking me to roll it into a snake, and cutting it into little pieces, just like I’d done with the clay 😉 I thought she was planning on making some play dough leaves but she didn’t go back to her tree and was content just chopping up the play dough.

 

 

 

Additional suggestions:

• You can cut out a tree trunk from construction paper or create one from twigs rather than draw it on.
• Let your child draw the tree trunk.
• If you don’t have modeling clay, use play dough. Modeling clay is tougher and gives a greater workout for the fingers, though.

 

 

Has your child created fall trees? Tell me about them in the comments! Feel free to leave a link if you’ve posted about it.