I am obsessed with the colorful leaves this time of year! My kids and I love to pick up leaves when we are on walks, but they quickly get old and we can’t use them for anything. I decided to try using my laminator
I used my favorite laminator
Then I cut around each leaf.
It’s fun to have a variety of leaves.
Then I glued magnets to the back of the laminated leaves.
Next, I gave my boys a bin of laminated leaves and a cookie sheet for them make designs with the leaves.
Here is what he created–a person raking leaves! I love seeing his creativity.
Wes wanted to make leaf people, so I gave him glue and googly eyes and he made faces on the leaves. I drew the mouths onto the leaf people. 🙂
We also made patterns with the colored leaves.
We sorted the leaves by color.
And we ordered the leaves by size.
Then we stuck our leaf magnets to the refrigerator! We made letters with the leaves.
Troy said these leaves are mom and her three boys.
And we did some more sorting by colors.
And then we just filled the whole fridge with leaves!
This would be a great activity for a toddler. Just make sure you supervise and the magnets are super glued to the back! I think I’ll be using this activity the next time I need to keep my little ones busy when I’m making supper!
I loved these laminated leaves! They are great because you can reuse these for a long time. A couple years ago we put leaves in between contact paper and they preserved them well, so I know these laminated will keep nicely.
Lastly, if you are a teacher, this would be a great activity for a learning center. 🙂
Hope you’ll try these leaves activities this fall!
Nice bunch of activities for the little ones. Thank you
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These are so simple yet beautiful. I have been so lazy to press these, stick in journal, etc. Laminating them would just be so much easier and accomplish the same purpose. I dare say this will be more suitable for my toddler (short attention span). Thanks for this!
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I have a bunch of these! They’re great. I’ve used them around my display board. I’ve also just made a posting box using a coffee tin with a plastic lid, so easy to cut into. Little one played with it for ages.
Thanks for the ideas, I have some magnets, so will be adding them!
And the eyes are great too!!
this is a super idea! You could put the magnet inside the laminating so they would be more friendly for toddlers.
That’s a great idea!
Can you recommend laminators…what to look for and to stay away from?
This is the only laminator that I’ve used and I totally love! –> http://amzn.to/1tBDApT It’s super easy to use! Hope that helps!
hi I’m having a problem i put in my email and it won’t confirm
so i can’t get your updates or posts
That is strange! I will manually add you to the list. Thanks!
Do you think it would work just as well using clear contact paper and sandwiching the leaves in between? I don’t have a laminator.
Yes that works, too! We tried that two years ago and it worked great.
We DID try this using the contact paper and the leaves look great. I don’t have any magnets yet to use, so to start with I made a drop box/posting box. My son loves depositing the leaves we picked up on our walk. Thanks for the laminating idea and the reply above!
Hi! It’s a great idea. But my only concern was is it okay if we laminate the fresh leaves or do we have to dry them or stick them between pages and then go for lamination?
Yes you laminate fresh leaves. I just picked leaves up off the ground and laminated them right away.
Thank you for these wonderful ideas! Can’t wait to try them!!
I think this is a great idea! I just have one question: do the leaves dry up after a while?
Nope, they don’t! The lamination preserves the leaves. In fact, I’ve saved mine and have had them for several years!
Love the idea of laminating the leaves. Thank you