Do the sights of pumpkins and changing leaves get you giddy for autumn? Fall is my favorite season for so many reasons: the cooler temperatures, everything pumpkin flavored, Halloween and Thanksgiving festivities, and the endless beautiful crafts to celebrate the colors and changes of the season. We've been studying trees in homeschool this month and found the perfect fall craft to learn about and celebrate the changes in leaves! Salt Dough Leaf Impressions are a fun and easy to make autumn craft, and are a great way to learn about leaf parts and their changes through the seasons.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup flour
- 1 cup salt
- 1/2 cup water
- fresh leaves
- parchment paper
Directions:
- Preheat your oven to the lowest setting.
- Combine the flour and salt together in a medium-sized bowl. SLOWLY add in water and mix it all together until you get a nice dough consistency. We first mixed with a spoon and then quickly switched to mixing with hands! My kiddo loved the feel of it; it was almost like a play dough! If it becomes too wet, you can adjust with more flour and salt. The dough should stick together and not feel slimy/sticky on your hands.
- Pinch, roll, and flatten small amounts of the dough. Each piece you flatten should be large enough to fit the leaves you collected. Place the flattened dough onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Press the leaves into your dough. The harder you press, the more defined your leaf parts will be. Carefully remove the leaves from the dough. Place the shiny-side of the leaf up to see the imprints of the veins, midribs, etc., or the dull-side up to see just the shape of the blade.
- Bake the dough for 2.5-3 hours or until hard. For the last 30 minutes of baking, you can flip them over to ensure the back hardens as well.
Does it still feel like summer in your part of the world? Try our Puffy Paint Summer Craft instead!
