Fall in Southern California

I'm a HUGE fan of the Fall!  I love the crisp, cool weather, the fires we can light at night, and most of all I love the changing trees.  Unfortunately, we don't get a lot of that around Southern California.  In order to do this project I actually had to go on a leaf hunt.  It's true, you can call me "The Leaf Thief" because I had to go and take leaves off of trees so that they were a beautiful Fall color, and not the gross brown that was littering the ground.  Luckily, I have amazing neighbors who really didn't care to lose a couple of leaves for the good of crafting.  If you also have a leaf deficiency then I might suggest going to the park, or as a last result, going to the craft store and buying the fake ones.

Today, to celebrate the beautiful colors of Fall, and the coming together of families for the holidays, we are making Leaf People.  I was inspired by a Martha Stewart post where she made animals for each letter of the alphabet out of leaves. (You can check it out by clicking here)  That seemed way too complicated for me, so Jake (my youngest brother) and I made Leaf People of ourselves.  He even made them hold hands!  I knew he loved me!  It's hard to tell when they are twelve and full of eye rolling and face making.

To start, I gathered A BUNCH of leaves from the neighborhood.

Then we laid out our people.  Make sure they have heads, bodies, legs and arms.  I included feet for mine, and Jake included (giant) hands for his.  Work with what you have, anything goes!

He is so going to hate me for posting a picture of him, but he's just so cute!  Once the leaves are all laid out and you are happy with your person, glue them down.

If you can find your googly eyes, I couldn't, then go ahead and add them in!  It would really add a lot to this easy project.  If your child is doing this alone, have them do your family in leaves, or even a self portrait.  For the younger kids, they probably won't look much like people, but who cares!  As long as they are having fun, and enjoying an easy and pretty much free craft, then I am thrilled!

Here is how our little guys turned out:

Did I mention how much I love that they are holding hands?

I really hope you try this out, there is really no excuse not too, well unless you live in the Arctic and nothing grows.  That would be a good excuse!

Happy Monday!  And thanks for sticking around even though I was sick last week!  It's the curse of being a teacher.