Fall Leaves Crafts, Activities, & Books

📝This post about Fall Leaves Crafts was originally published in 2012 and has been updated with new information and resources.

Fall is my favorite time of year. I love the colors, the smell, and all the fun activities that come with the season. And when my boys were little, fall meant one thing — crafts! We spent many an afternoon collecting leaves, painting, and reading our favorite fall books together. Those are some of my favorite memories.

Whether you are looking for a quick craft, a fun fall activity, or a great book to read together, I’ve got you covered.

Fall Leaves Crafts for Kids

Painted Fall Leaves

This is one of those crafts that is incredibly simple but turns out beautiful every single time. My youngest asked if we could paint some leaves one morning, and I immediately said yes. He wanted to cut leaves from paper, but I suggested we take a walk first and collect some real ones instead.

We took a short walk around the neighborhood and came home with a ton of different shapes and sizes. Once we were back inside, we talked about fall colors, set up our paint tray, and got to work. My boys were so creative, and the results were absolutely gorgeous!

What You Need:

✔️Real leaves collected on a walk
✔️Paint (tempera or watercolors work great)
✔️Paintbrushes

Tips:

💡Collect a variety of shapes and sizes for more interesting results.
💡Press leaves flat under a heavy book before painting if they are curled.
💡Set up inside a cardboard box lid to contain the mess!

Coffee Filter Watercolor Leaves

This craft was inspired by one of our favorite fall books — Leaf Trouble by Jonathan Emmett. It is the story of little Pip Squirrel, who wakes one morning to find his tree changing. The leaves are turning colors and falling to the ground, and Pip is determined to put them back! After we read it, making colorful coffee filter leaves just seemed like the perfect follow-up activity.

What You Need:

✔️Coffee filters
✔️Liquid watercolors (regular watercolors or food coloring work too)
✔️Plastic droppers
✔️Water
✔️Scissors
✔️Leaf templates (Google “leaf templates,” resize to your liking, and print!)

How to Make Coffee Filter Watercolor Leaves:

Start by tracing your leaf templates onto coffee filters and cutting them out — make several of each shape. Mix about ½ tsp of each watercolor with about ¼ cup of water.

Set up your workspace inside a cardboard box lid or a pizza box to keep things contained. Give each child a few coffee filter leaves and let them go to town with the droppers! They can try small drops, big puddles, and even dipping the leaves directly into the paint.

Leave the finished leaves to dry on wax paper. They dry quickly, and the colors stay beautifully vibrant. When you peel them off the wax paper — wow!

To be honest, my boys probably spent more time playing with the leaves afterward than they did making them!

What to Do with Your Leaves:

Once your leaves are dry, the fun does not have to stop! Here are some great follow-up activities:

🍁Use straws to blow the leaves and see how long you can keep them off the ground
🍁Have a leaf-throwing “fight”
🍁Create a tree from cardboard tubes or paper and hang the green leaves on top
🍁Make a leaf book
🍁Hide the leaves and have a leaf hunt
🍁Do leaf math! “If the tree had 4 leaves and 3 fell to the ground, how many leaves are left?”
🍁Sort the leaves by shape or color
🍁Write a message like “Just Dropping in to Say Hello” on the leaves and send them to faraway family!

5 Little Leaves: Rhymes and Craft

This is one of my all-time favorite fall activities, and it was SO popular with readers back in the day! My boys loved moving the leaves around as we recited the rhymes together. It was such a simple activity, but it combined art, movement, and early literacy in a way that kept them engaged.

How to Make Your Leaves:

Have your child paint a piece of white paper using lots of beautiful fall colors. Once the paint is dry, trace leaf templates onto the paper and cut them out.

Optional: Add some googly eyes to the leaves and put them on a painted toilet paper roll “tree.”

5 Little Leaves Rhymes:

Use the leaves you made above to act out these simple fall rhymes. As each leaf falls, have your child remove one leaf from the group.

Rhyme 1
Five little leaves so bright and gay,
Were dancing in a tree one day.
The wind came blowing through the town,
One little leaf came tumbling down.

 (Repeat with four, three, two, and one.)

Rhyme 2
Five little leaves up in a tree.
One little leaf said, “Look at me!”
The leaf let go, and down he fell. “
EEEEEEEEE!” Ouch!
He didn’t feel so well.

 (Repeat with four, three…)

Rhyme 3
Five little leaves on the tree next door,
One fell off and then there were four.
Four little leaves all over the tree,
A bird pulled off one, and then there were three.
Three little leaves where the wind blew,
One fell off, and then there were two.
Two little leaves sitting in the sun.
A bug ate a leaf, and now there is one.
One little leaf in the tree all alone,
The wind blew and blew, and now there are none.

Books About Fall for Kids

One of my favorite things about fall activities is pairing them with great books. After we finished crafting, we almost always curled up with a story or two. Here are some of our favorite fall books about leaves and the changing seasons. 

🍂 Leaf Trouble by Jonathan Emmett — We loved pairing this one with the coffee filter leaf craft. Pip is such a lovable character.

🍂 Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf by Lois Ehlert — A gorgeous book that uses seeds, fabric, wire, and watercolors to introduce children to the life of a tree. A classic!

🍂 Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert — This one was always a favorite in my classroom. Kids love studying all the different leaf creations.

🍂 Fall Mixed Up by Bob Raczka — “Every Septober, Every Octember, Fall fills my senses with scenes to remember.” A silly, laugh-out-loud story where everything is mixed up and readers are invited to find the mistakes.

👉🏼Looking for a fun activity to go with Fall Mixed Up? Check out the Fall Mixed Up Group Activity and Writing Activity in my TPT store!

🍂 Leaves by Davide Ezra Stein — Young bear experiences his first autumn and is confused when the leaves start falling. A sweet and simple story.

🍂 It’s Fall by Linda Glaser — Simple text and illustrations help young readers understand what happens during fall. Perfect for the youngest readers!

🍂 Fall of Freddie the Leaf by Leo Buscaglia — A timeless story about a leaf named Freddie and his fellow leaves as they change through the seasons.

🍂 How Do You Know It’s Fall? by Allan Fowler (Rookie Read-About Science) — Simple text, gorgeous photographs, and just enough information to help children understand what is happening around them during fall.

🍂Why Do Leaves Change Color? by Betsy Maestro — If your kids are constantly asking questions about fall, this is a great book to have on hand.

🍂 Look What I Did with a Leaf! by Morteza Sohi — A wonderful book that will inspire even more leaf crafts!

🍂 Fletcher and the Falling Leaves by Julia Rawlins — As the leaves fall from his favorite tree, Fletcher worries that something is terribly wrong. But then winter comes, and with it a wonderful surprise.

🍂 The Very Last Leaf by Stef Wade — A funny and sweet story about a leaf who is afraid to fall and the courage it takes to let go.

Whether you choose a craft, a rhyme, or a great book, I hope these fall leaf activities help you make some wonderful autumn memories of your own.

Looking for more fall activities? Check out these fun posts:

Fall Fingerplays: Apples and Pumpkins