This fan-folded leaves craft was from Better Homes & Gardens several years ago.  The first time I did it was with a group of elementary age kids.  I simplified it some because it involved painting and I didn’t want to get into that with little kids just yet.  🙂  I printed out the pattern and then photocopied it onto red, yellow, and orange construction paper (you could cut out the pattern and then trace it onto paper if you’re just doing it with your kids.  I was doing it with a large group of kids).  I’ve learned that kids didn’t like to trace and I spent a lot of time tracing their patterns for them.  I thought they would be asking for help cutting, but they did surprisingly well!  Each kid had time to make two or three leaves (depending on how well they focused on the task at hand).

Anyway, first make the fan folds on the long edge (hot dog folds).

Then open it back up and fold the paper in half the other way (a hamburger fold – anybody else have kids that were taught this way?).  Make sure that they fold it the right way otherwise you’ll end up with a very odd looking leaf and a confused kid.

Keep it folded in half and cut out the leaf.

Then, open it back up and redo the fan folds.

Fold it in half so the long edges of the leaf meet. Glue (or tape or staple) the long edges together and voila, leaf.

The great thing about this is it doesn’t matter how you make the fan folds.  Big, little, a mix, it all works and makes the leaves unique.

Part of my “real job” is teaching art to K-8th grade.  We started off the year with a simple color wheel – not much creativity required, but they seemed to enjoy the finger painting.  All you need are some tempera paints (preferably washable!), glue, paper plates, some wet paper towels (for cleaning fingers between colors), and a piece of foil.

For each kid, you will need two paper plates.  Cut one of them into six pieces.  The other one will be for assembling the color wheel.

For the younger kids (K-2), I made it super easy for them.  I put the required paint on each piece – red, blue, yellow, and then red/yellow, red/blue, and blue/yellow.  All they had to do was spread the paint for the primary colors and mix the paint right on the piece for the secondary colors.  For grades 3-5, I put the paint on a piece of foil so they had to do all the work.  I did have to explain that they couldn’t get the colors mixed on the foil – they needed to keep the colors pure and mix them on the pieces.

As they painted the pieces, I explained how the primary colors mix to make the secondary colors and showed them how to put them in order on their color wheel.

After the pieces dry, glue them to the other plate.

To make this a little more challenging for the 6-8 graders, I cut the plates into 12 pieces.  After they painted the primary and secondary colors, I had them mix a primary with a secondary – so mix red with orange to make red-orange, mix yellow with orange to make yellow-orange, mix blue with purple to make blue-purple, etc (blue-green, red-purple, and yellow-green).  These colors are called intermediate colors or tertiary colors.  They may need some help getting them all arranged on the paper plate.  I tried to make sure they placed each piece as they painted it.  It can be hard to tell the secondary and tertiary colors apart.

 

This lesson is based on the Rainbow Pie lesson.

I saw this idea on Pinterest and had to try it.  I was surprised at how easy it was and that it really worked!  Simply lightly trace your hand and wrist onto a piece of white paper.  Pick two or three different colors for your lines.  I used markers for mine and think they work better than crayons or colored pencils.  Draw a straight line until you get to your tracing, then make a curved line.  It’s easy when you start, but when you get to your fingers, be careful that you make your curved line just in the fingers and a straight line between them.

I started by drawing straight lines with a ruler.  I space them out a bit.  Then I connect them with a curved line.  Then I use another color and draw straight lines in between the first set.  Connect them with a curved line too.  If I want a super neat look, I use a ruler for the whole thing.

You don’t have to use a lot of colors.  It works just as well with only 3 or 4.  As long as your lines are semi-straight, it will work.

Using a rainbow of colors will work well too!

As soon as you get lines up the whole hand, you can really see the hand popping off the page!  I tried this with the art class I teach and it worked well for the older kids (say 10+).  Younger kids aren’t as careful about the straight and curved lines and don’t have the patience to do the whole hand.