Bring a spark of color to your home or classroom with this vibrant leaf monster craft. While it looks adorable any time of year, it makes an especially wonderful Halloween project. It’s also a great activity for fostering creativity and building fine motor skills.
Supplies Needed to Make the Silly Leaf Monster Craft
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- leaves in various shapes and sizes collected from outdoors
- craft paint (any paint will work, but I recommend tempera)
- paintbrushes
- face stickers
- markers
Setup and Process
Begin by spending some fun time in nature collecting leaves. Being outdoors is great for mental health, so allow your kiddos to take their time. Encourage them to take in the sights and sounds around them. Don’t rush the process.
For the cutest monster collection, make sure your students pick up a variety of leaves in different sizes and shapes. For students in wheelchairs be sure to have a grabber for them to use.
After collecting the leaves, it’s time to paint. The goal is to fully coat the surface of the leaf, but if some natural color pokes through, no worries. Some of our cutest leaves were painted by my toddler who definitely didn’t achieve full coverage.
You can use any paint you have available, but tempera paint is going to provide much better coverage and color than project or poster paint. Of course, tempera paint can stain clothes, so there’s a definite trade-off.
Let the leaves dry completely before allowing the students to add their face stickers. As long as the paint isn’t too thick, they will dry pretty quickly. Still, waiting will be the hard part.
If you don’t have the funds to buy any stickers your kiddos can always use markers to draw their faces on instead. Darker colored markers work best.
Adapting for Special Needs
Students with fine motor difficulties may find it impossible to work with the stickers on their own. For these kiddos, you can try peeling back 1 corner of each sticker to help them get their finger underneath.
If you have some extra money to spend, you can also grab these happy face stampers. They will look a little small on larger leaves, but it’s a far greater option than having to provide hand-over-hand assistance. Just be aware that some kids may still need additional foam padding on the handle to make these work.
Alternative Ways to Use This Monster Leaf Art Project
1. Transform this art project into adorable decor by stringing the leaves together to make a bunting. Simply punch a hole in the top of the leaves to make room for the string. Wrap the string through each hole twice to hold the leaf in place and prevent sliding.
2. These leaves also make great decorations for homemade Halloween cards. First color a nice background design, then glue one or more of these leaves onto the front of the card. Gift these cards to family and friends to brighten their day.
3. As a fun twist, have your students draw faces on the leaves (or use stickers) that depict different emotions. This would be an especially good activity for preschool where kids are still learning to process their own emotions and recognize how others are feeling.
