Leaf Creatures Station

This was such a fun station for my K, 1's and 2's.  Students were asked to look at the book Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert.  There was lot's of inspiration from this book to create a leaf creature.  The video was all that the student needed to be very successful when choosing this station to work at.

Here are a couple of tips I have to creating this station successfully.  First you need to be in an area that has beautiful leaves in the fall.  Or, I guess you could press any kind of leaves any time of the year.  So... what I'm trying to say is you need some leaves. 

Pressing the leaves made the leaf creatures easier to make.  I found cutting the stems off  the leaves first helped in the pressing process.

I tried it day one with no pressing... changed to pressing the leave.  Day number two pressed the leaves but they would crumble under the delicate hands of these young artist. I used contact paper on day three to protect them... the contact paper fell apart.  Day 4 I was explaining the problem to a fellow teacher who suggested using the Purple Cow.  I said... What is this you speak of, a cow which is purple.... (no, I didn't really say that).  I was shocked to know that I didn't know about this magic machine.  It's a little laminate machine that has a bit more sturdy seal and worked perfect for this situation. 

Once they were done, I cut around them and they all survived.  Only time will tell if I need to do this each year of if these will work for next year too.