Fall Leaf Mosaics

It’s been a strange fall season so far – it hasn’t felt much like fall weather-wise, but I’m still yearning for all of the coziness and autumn colors. I’ve got a perfect fall preschool art project for you today! These mosaics require multiple steps (which mean that they can be on your lesson plans for a few days) and they target fine motor skills, sorting and categorizing, planning and execution, and artistic expression.

To create beautiful leaf mosaics your class will first need to collect leaves in a wide variety of colors. This can be done on your program’s playground, on a walk in the neighborhood, a field trip to a park, or families can collect them and send them to school with their children. The key is to try and make sure that you get a good array of colors so that children are really able to bring their visions to life on the paper.

Once the leaves have all been collected then children can help sort them by color. Each pile of colored leaves with then be torn into small pieces. These pieces should be large enough that children can still pick them up easily.

Then the creative process really begins. Encourage children to place the leaf pieces on their paper before they start gluing so that they can choose their colors and plan out their images ahead of time. You may have to model how to use the different shaped pieces to create simple larger shapes (flowers, hearts, animals, vehicles, etc.) Children can also create more abstract art with these materials if they like. When they are ready to attach everything to their paper I suggest using a paintbrush to spread glue, and then placing multiple leaf pieces after brushing a larger area with glue.

The best thing about a project like this one is that every child will create a piece of art that is truly and completely their own. These are perfect for displaying in the classroom throughout the rest of the autumn season!