We have been exploring fall with an emphasis on the changing colors of leaves around our preschool but this time, we used our hands to explore the leaves and not just our eyes…
Each child chose a leaf from our collection of leaves on the table and set it on a square of cardboard (I cut up the cardboard squares from an old box). The children used their hands to determine which side of the leaf had veins that you could feel the best (usually the back of the leaf) and placed that side of the leaf facing up…
Then the children placed a sheet of foil over their leaf…
At this point, I want to tell you that it would be better if you have the children go ahead and wrap their foil all the way around their cardboard so the foil doesn’t slide around as the children rub their hands on the foil. Â Some of my students wrapped their foil all the way around the cardboard and some didn’t – but in the future, I would have them all wrap the foil first. Â Once the foil was on top of the leaves with the edges wrapped around the back of the cardboard, then it is time to rub the foil or smooth out the foil over the leaf until the veins of the leaf can be seen…
The children did a wonderful job rubbing the foil so the imprint of the leaves would show. For some of the children, we started over and wrapped their foil around their cardboard squares so the foil and the leaf would not slide around as the children rubbed over the leaf. It was hard to get a photo of the leaf imprints in the foil but the children were very interested in this entire process and loved it when their leaf veins begin to appear…
This activity was a part of a five senses unit we are also doing so our focus for this process was more on touch and feeling with our hands than on what we could see but we were able to see the imprint of our leaves as well…
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