As part of the science curriculum in my middle school, every seventh grader was required to put together a collection of leaves. This collection included gathered leaves, as well as leaf art. While I didnt care so much for the collecting portion of the project, my mom and I traveled around my neighborhood, as well as to local nurseries, to find the different leaf species that I needed for an A+. Despite enjoying the extra mom time that I got while looking for leaves, the art portion of this assignment was where I thrived, and where my memories of this project remain.
As fall is now upon us and the leaves are starting to change, I couldnt help but think how much fun it would be to recreate my leaf art with my sons! While not as artistic as myself, my little men LOVE being outside and are constantly picking up things that they find in our new backyard. Unfortunately this tends to be dirt and bugs, but with a small nudge, I have been able to create a bit of fascination with the leaves that are starting to fall.
Being as though our backyard is not a breading ground for leaves, a hiking trip was something that I thought might not only be fun, but also a great way to find leaves both big and small for our art project. In doing my research, I found that there are really great, family friendly trails in our neighborhood. From the Highlands to Millstone, here are five to check out if you are looking for an outside adventure this season:
1. Hartshorne Woods (Atlantic Highlands)
2. Holmdel Park (Holmdel)
3. Thompson Park (Lincroft)
4. Shark Rive Park (Wall)
5. Perrineville Lake Park (Millstone)
While on our way home from Shark River Park with our leaves in tote, I began to think of all of the things that we could create with our trail treasures. Would we laminate them and add a magnet to them so that we could have fall refrigerator decor? Would we paint one side of them to use them as stamps for future art projects? While both sounded great, I wanted something that required a bit less effort. It was in the midst of my " I just walked 2 mile" exhaustion that I came up with the idea to sun bleach! With a just four simple things, I would be able to take our leaves and turn them into festive placemats for the entire fall season! Here is how we made them:
Supplies:
Construction paper
Leaves
Small rocks (or small weighted objects)
Laminating paper (or clear packaging tape)
Steps:
1. Place your leaves on the construction paper in a sunlit area outside, allowing your kids to be creative in how each leaf is positioned. (Make sure to weigh your leaves down with a small rock or object that will not produce any extra shadows on your construction paper.)
2. Leave the paper out in the sun for 3-5 hours.
3. Remove the leaves from the paper. You’ll see that the sun bleached the uncovered areas, but the paper under the leaves stayed fully colored!
4. Laminate your design (or cover it in packaging tape) to create your placemat that can be used for every meal from now until the end of the season.
