Leaf ID sheet and a little Art Time

We are fortunate to have a yard full of trees, and lots of different ones to choose from.  A couple of days ago I went out and grabbed some leaves to make a leaf identification sheet for M. 
I simply arranged them on the scanner and copied them onto a piece of cardstock:Then I labeled them (I only picked leaves that I was sure of, but I clearly need to learn a bit more about the trees we have.  There are several I can’t identify). 
I gave the sheet and the leaves to M to match them up as I told him their names: I hope to have him gather some leaves on his own and use this sheet to identify them some time soon (he’s been sick all week, and stuck inside, poor guy!).
Then we did some rubbings of the leaves:We’ve never done rubbings of any sort, although it is something I’ve wanted to do for quite a while.  M enjoyed seeing the magic picture show up. ;)  I hid the leaves under the paper while he was out of the room.  When he started the rubbing he said, “I’m making a tree!!”.
Finished products (top pic is chalk, bottom pic is crayons): 

Have a beautiful day! :)

Open-Ended Art – Autumn Colors

It’s been a long time since we participated in the open-ended art mcklinky at Growing by Leaps and Bounds. We are happy to be back in our *art groove* this week! :) This week the theme is fall colors – orange, yellow, red, and brown. We added green in because we were working on another fall project at the same time and I felt like green added a little something (and there IS green in fall too!). :)

After creating his autumn tree masterpiece, M just wanted to paint and do his own thing on a blank sheet of paper. I love this, and we’ve gotten away from doing this on a regular basis, so I was happy he asked.

First he did this: “I’m covering all the white spots, Mommy!” Yep, I can see that. :) He is really into this painting-the-entire-paper thing lately. It’s his art, he can do whatever he wants!

Next, more paper, and he did this: It’s always a good time when the trucks get involved!! He must’ve kept himself occupied for at least an hour with all his painting that day. In my opinion, the cleanup is totally worth it!

Here’s his finished artwork:

Go here to check out more fun open-ended artwork!

Have a beautiful day! :)