Fall Letter Craft for Preschoolers: L is for Leaf

Inside: This fall letter craft takes leaf rubbings to the next level! Find out how we did it, and get a trick to make it easier for little hands.

"How to Make Leaf Letter Rubbings"

Autumn is finally here, and it’s time for a new fall letter craft! (Or even an old favorite leaf craft!) You can do this letter activity whether or not the leaves have changed colors where you live.

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Fall Letter Craft

I’m always trying to think of fun new hands-on letter activities for little learners. This one helps work on strengthening fine motor skills as well as providing a little alphabet work.

Materials

You will need some leaves, but they do not have to be real. I live in Texas, and our leaves don’t even begin to change until November – and by then we’re more interested in projects like our cute turkey puppets!

  • Leaves, either fake craft leaves or real ones
  • Hot glue gun (for adult use)
  • Paper
  • Unwrapped crayons
  • Optional: re-stickable contact paper (affiliate)

Alternatively, instead of hot glue, you could use regular school glue and wait for it to dry thoroughly. I prefer hot glue because it hardens so quickly.

Preparation

Use your hot glue gun to write letters on the leaves. It takes a bit of practice to get smooth letters, so you might want to try it out on scrap paper first.

hot glue gun hovered above an autumn leaf

Don’t worry about all the little hot glue strings. Just let the glue cool and harden, and then you can easily pick the strings off without messing up your letter.

Finally, if you think your littles might need extra help holding the leaf still, you can lay it on re-stickable contact paper and then cover that with the paper.

Leaf Rubbing Instructions

Once you have your leaves ready with letters on them, your children will proceed with a pretty standard leaf rubbing.

First, place the paper on top of the leaf and hold them firmly together so that the leaf doesn’t slide around.

Then, use the side of the crayon to rub over the paper. Continue until the outline of the leaf and the letter appear.

Finally, you can use the tip of the crayon to fill in any spots that got skipped over due to the unevenness of your glue letter.

Voila! Repeat with other letters. You can do “L is for Leaf” and mount it on construction paper. Or, give each child the letters in their name – or for younger preschoolers, just the first letter.

Add a Leaf Book

If you want a story to go with this craft, here are a couple of options:

If You Find a Leaf by Aimee Sicuro – This whimsical story has gorgeous illustrations and shows fall leaves being used in unusual ways, such as a hat, a hammock, and a boat. (affiliate)

Leaves by David Ezra Stein – A young bear wonders why the leaves are falling, and he tries to put them back on the trees. This sweet story incorporates the seasons and hibernation, so it’s perfect if you’ll also be teaching those concepts this year. (affiliate)

I’d love to see how your leaf crafts turn out. You can tag me on social media if you want to share.

Happy Teaching!

-Heather

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