There is a small clearing next to Big A’s school where the girls play every.single.day after school. Just playing with sticks, twigs, climbing the trees and building nest and caves surely make them two happy little girls. I have noticed that they are better behaved and willing to listen once we get home if they have had their share of nature play. After having good fun there, we just had to drag a branch which was lying on the ground

Once the branch was propped up against our  swing set, the inevitable happened.

The branch became a tree and out came her birds. Stuffed animals and backyard dirt don’t really go together. However, kids thought out activities are really special to us.

Anyway, a branch became a tree with happy birds singing about. [highlight bg=”#DDFF99″ color=”#000000″]A pretty long pretend play session happened[/highlight]with the girls feeding the birds, settling bird fights and fighting off mean birds.

After  lunch which was completed in record speed, we were out with the tree again.

Big A requested for “those foam leaves we bought from Target” so that she can make a “fall tree”. I was excited because that was exactly what I had in mind. Pretty sweet when those things happen.

Here it is, our second fall activity for the season

[box title=”Things we used” color=”#b01212″]

Foam leaves
Fall colors construction paper
Tape
Scissors
Marker/pencil for tracing

[/box]

This activity is good for pre schooler and above

Since we didn’t have that many foam leaves, [highlight bg=”#DDFF99″ color=”#000000″]we traced leaf patterns on construction sheets using a foam leaf.[/highlight]

[highlight bg=”#DDFF99″ color=”#000000″]Quick reminder : [/highlight]Don’t forget to arrange as many colored sheets one on top o the other as possible while cutting. With one go, you can have atleast 5 leaves.

We gathered all our leaves (foam and paper leaves) and headed out to decorate our fall tree.

After this it is pretty much talking the kids into NOT TAKING yards of sticky tape for a tiny leaf. Since it was a mildly windy day, it made it a little hard for the leaves to stay put. The tree was behaving true to its name! Ha! [highlight bg=”#DDFF99″ color=”#000000″]To keep sticking frustration-free for the kids remind them to tape around the twig for additional support.[/highlight] If you find a better way to stick the leaves, good for you. We just stuck to tape ( no pun)

Here is tree with a gigantic spider protecting all the birds.

The fun did not stop there. The kids had a picnic under the tree which transformed into a restaurant where Big A would start each sentence with a “Would you like to have a….” for the next 1 hour.

[highlight bg=”#DDFF99″ color=”#000000″]Please note[/highlight] that if the tree branch is just propped up against the wall, it might occasionally topple over with the excited kids leaning over, running behind it, running through it. We tied it against the swing set and moved it to the wall just for better pictures.

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We have had more fun with nature in the past

• Painted leaves with puffy paint and did fall art
• Painted trees and built nests
• Made mud soup
• Made bugs out of propeller seeds

Check out our resourceful e-book filled with many preschool play ideas.

We have also collaborated on another e-book with simple and practical baby play ideas.