Leaf Puppets - Leaf Craft for Preschoolers

As Autumn begins so do all the leaf crafts!  Leaf puppets are such a simple and fun activity for toddlers and preschoolers.  After reading the 'Leaf Man' by Lois Ehlert we made a collection of leaves and then set to work on making our own leaf man (well about 20 leaf men, monsters and owls!) 

If you are looking for more Autumn crafts you might like our painted leaves, our bird feeders or our pine cone owls. 

You might also like to check out our collection of tree craft ideas. 

This weeks book is one of my favourites for this time of year 'Leaf Man' by Lois Ehlert. Leaf man is a story about a man made of leaves travelling wherever the wind blows. 

 Its is full of amazing illustrations made from actual leaves. Inspired by the leaf creatures in the book we made our own leaf puppets.

We used chalk pens to draw on the leaves which leave brilliant bright marks and are really easy to use (and easy to clean off!). 

Leaf Craft for Preschoolers

Leaf puppet craft - supplies:

• a collection of leaves
• chalk pens
• craft sticks
• laminator

        

How to make puppets from laminated leaves

After going on a walk to collect our leaves we got started on our leaf puppets. Using chalk pens we drew on the leaves. Daisy made marks on her leaves using different coloured pens. 

Harry made patterns, drawings and faces on his leaves. He was really focused and knew exactly what he wanted to turn each leaf into. 

I had fun drawing on a few of the leaves too!

Once the chalk pens had dried we put the leaves through the laminator and cut them out. We used to tape to stick a craft stick onto each leaf to turn them into puppets and then added googly eyes to a few of our leaves.

We made a collection of our own leaf men,



a few leaf monsters

and some cute little owls.

We had loads of fun playing with our leaf puppets.  Daisy was especially taken by the owls. 

She has put on some great puppet shows and has been putting on some hilarious voices as she makes her puppets speak. 

Harry: Age 5

Daisy: Age 2

More 'Leaf Man' activities

Alphabet - 

Learning about letters with leaves

Beginning sounds activity- Leaf sticker tree

Letter recognition game with free printable

Leaf name sticky wall

Sensory -

Fall loose part sensory invitation

Fall leaf auditory processing activity  

Science - 

Leaf matching activity 

Colours -
Giant watercolour leaves 

Leaf sequencing

Pre-writing - 

Leaf art prewriting patterns

Fall pre writing activity

Movement activity - 

Number leaf scavenger hunt 

Shapes - 

Leaf art

Leaf shapes fingerprint activity

We hope you have fun reading 'Leaf Man' by Lois Ehlert and that you enjoy a fun of these fun leaf crafts and activities for preschoolers.