Toddlers by nature love love Fall! My 18 month old loves to collect leaves, throw collected leaves, and just enjoy all the colors around him. It’s a joy to watch him enjoy this season for the first time. So I’ve been looking for activities that incorporate the beauty of the season.
SETUP:
- I taped two of these pages together, and then taped them to the mat.
- On a paper plate, I poured some of the paints from this collection.
- Some big paintbrushes. I feel a toddler finds it easier to handle thick brushes like these.
- Some fallen leaves we collected the same morning.
The leaves collected need to be soft enough for a toddler to paint. So the fresher it is, the softer it will be.
I showed him how to use the paintbrush to dip it in the paper plate and then paint the leaves. I needed to hold down the leaves from initially, but he got the hang of it pretty soon. He mixed the colors, discovered new combinations and just had so much fun. Painting days have been our favorite which makes me think of so many new ways to do art together.
He stood and painted some leaves by himself. I then showed him how to dip the leaf directly into the plate of colors and smear the colors on the leaf. He tried it but was more interested in using the paintbrushes.
