Fall Toddler Leaf Art {Fun Sponge Painting!}

Inside: This toddler leaf art works fine motor skills as the children use sponges to apply paint. Fun process art for fall!

Sponges replace paint brushes for this hands-on toddler leaf art.

I was thrilled when my co-teacher put together this art activity. You all know by now how I love anything that builds fine motor development. Well, this activity did just that.

Plus, it tied in with our leaf science shelf.

• While outside, we’ve been observing the various colors in the trees that surround our yard.
• We’ve sung songs about leaves, such as The Leaves on the Tree.
• We’ve read numerous leaf books, such as Leaves! Leaves! Leaves! 

By the time we did this art activity, we were very familiar with what happens to leaves in the fall.

Fall Toddler Leaf Art {Fun Sponge Painting!}

What you will need:

• Sea sponges
• Clothespins
• Red tempera paint
• Yellow tempera paint
• White paper

Before introducing this activity, we asked the children to bring a leaf to share.

One of the leaves was placed in an acrylic page holder on our science shelf.

(The little guy you see was looking out our window to see if he could find more.)

We had magnifying glasses so the children could see all the details in the leaves.

Setting up this toddler leaf art activity:

Pour the red and yellow paint into dishes.

Clip the clothespins to the sea sponges and have the paper leaves available.

See how their fingers held them?

Color mixing is also going on here.

When they dipped the sponge into the red and  yellow paint, they saw how it made orange.

Some of the children dabbed the paint onto the paper while others brushed it up and down.

Super simple toddler art, that also taps into science and color mixing while developing fine motor skills.

Here are more fall activities for kids:

• Simple Fall Art for Toddlers

• Fine Motor Activities for Fall

• Painting Activities for Fall

• A Huge Collection of Fall Activities