Autumn Art

Playing outside means watching the seasons change. I usually hate autumn but Baby B is having such a lovely time discovering nature that I’ve fallen in love with it too.

He really enjoys walking through fallen leaves and laughs his head off when I chuck them up in the air. He also has a bucket for collecting leaves, twigs, acorns, sycamore seeds and crab apples.

We had fun finding the prettiest leaves and brought them home to look at. We talked about colours, textures and some got well and truly scrunched.

We then used them in some art projects. I drew a tree trunk and branches on a piece of card and covered it in glue. B then picked leaves from the bucket and put them on to the tree. I pressed them down hard to make sure they stuck on.

Next I used rolled up masking tape to stick some nice shaped leaves to another piece of card. I put autumny colour paint in a tray and gave B a toddler paint brush. His painting style is to bash the brush down so this worked perfectly to cover the card, leaving lovely leaf stencil shapes.

I drew another tree and this time he did finger paint leaves over it. I guided his hand at first but he soon got the hang of it and loved feeling the paint.

A string washing line makes a fab way to display your baby’s amazing creations.

Top Tips:

• Get everything you need ready the night before.
• Use a piece of oilcloth to protect your table and secure it with masking tape.
• Masking tape the card or paper to the oilcloth.
• The pieces of card in baby clothes packaging are perfect for art projects and are free!
• It’s good to guide your baby’s hands so they learn techniques and your projects turn out how you want them to, but let them freestyle and experiment too.
• Have a snack ready to distract your baby while you tidy up.