Making leaf rubovers is an easy and fun project to do with children of all ages. The older they are, the nicer their leaves might look on the paper, but this post will demonstrate that even the youngest of children can have fun with this activity. If you enjoy fall leaves and autumn, you might also enjoy the roundup of fall books I did over at Mom Endeavors!

Making Leaf Rubovers

For the first part of this activity, you’ll need some bags, some walking shoes, and a good set of eyes. Get outdoors and start walking around! Talk to your children about what they see. Can they find a brown leaf? Can they find a pine needle? Can they find a rock? A branch? A flower? Do they notice any differences about the objects they are collecting? Do they see any similarities? You can even discuss what is considered living vs. dead. Simply walk, talk, and collect! That is what we did on our road trip this past summer.

Once you have all of the items back indoors, lay them out and take inventory. Again, it’s another great opportunity for conversation with your children! You can let them rubover sticks, rocks, shells, or leaves! We chose the traditional leaves version, especially since the three-year-old and one-year-old were leading the way!

At this point, you will want crayons and a blank sheet of paper. You’ll also want to be sure you are working on a flat surface. Since we were working with little hands, attempting this entire project for the first time ever, we opted not to unwrap the crayons and rub them over the leaves on their sides because we knew it would just become a rolling-the-crayons-off-the-table competition. However, I would suggest trying it that way because it makes for some nice final leaf rubovers.

We just placed the leaves under the paper and worked on coloring over the top with crayons! Big Brother got the hang of it in no time.

Little Brother didn’t hesitate to join in the fun either!

Before we knew it, our leaf rubovers were complete and the kids went back to playing with all of the neat stuff they collected!

You may like this Spooky Spider tutorial or these Glow in the Dark Pumpkins too!

What is your favorite thing about fall leaves?