The Little Leaves

Miss Huback and Miss Horkey introduced a project called The Little Leaves, which was based on a book called "The Little Yellow Leaf".  The students used scissors, glue, construction paper, crayons, oil pastels, white paper, 11x11 wax paper, shaving tools and leaves to create this project.  Students were also given the following vocabulary words; warm colors, cool colors, collage, texture, and pattern.  First, the students were read "The Little Yellow Leaf", which started a discussion on colors that were seen.  Students were also shown the texture on leaves and what a collage is.  Next, students were shown how to shave warm colored crayons onto a sheet of folded wax paper.  After they had enough shavings, the students had the teacher iron their folded wax paper sheets so that the crayon inside melted together.  The students then cut different shaped leaves from their wax paper and glued them onto the white sheet of paper in order to create a collage.  Finally, the students were told to add more leaves, in cool colors, to their collage.  Students were also told to add texture to their leaves using the oil pastels.

As an extension activity for this project, students could write a poem about their favorite fall memories.  The teacher could introduce them to different types of poems, and then have the students write a short poem that tells about they memories of fall and leaves.  The poems could be displayed along with the artwork in the classroom.  This extension activity would integrate language arts and art class.