Toddler Craft- Leaf Suncatchers

I saw this message on Pinterest the other day and it got me thinking about my daycare children.

Listen earnestly to anything your children want to tell you, no matter what.

If you don’t listen eagerly to the little stuff when they are little,

they won’t tell you the big stuff when they are big,

because to them all of it has always been big stuff.

~ Catherine M. Wallace ~

I want to make sure my daycare children feel listened to, even the young ones that don’t talk yet. My toddlers don’t have a large vocabulary yet but they like to bring to my attention events and objects they find interesting.

This happens frequently as we walk in nature. It got me thinking as to how I could honour the 87th leaf that they pick up and show me.

This easy sun catcher craft was a perfect way to show my toddlers how much I’m listening to their interests. If you want to make this craft pick up a roll of clear self-adhesive shelf liner paper next time you are at a dollar store.

Save the leaves the children collect as they play outdoors.

Cut off a large rectangle of the clear adhesive paper and fold it in half.  Peel back the paper backing to reveal the sticky side up on one half.

Have your children place their treasured leaves on the sticky contact side of the adhesive paper.

Once they have covered their rectangle, peel the paper backing off the other side and fold the two sticky sides together to sandwich the leaves in the middle.

The children can smooth out the wrinkles and large bubbles of air. We used scissors to round off the corners of the rectangle for our leaf sun catchers.

I hole punched the top of the sun catcher and used twine to add a loop for hanging.

These sun catchers are so simple and quick but they go a long way to show my daycare children that I value their treasures.

Looking for another activity involving Autumn leaves?  Check out these Leaf Crowns!  My group loves to wear their leaf crowns as they sing Autumn Leaves on the Trees.

Jana

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