First, go to Dollar General (or your local dollar store) and buy a package or two of fall silk leaves. Unless you are planning to make a HUGE garland, one package should be plenty.
Now get some pretty fall ribbon and cut it to the length you want for your garland. If you are doing this with young children, I would recommend using only a 2-3 foot length. If you are making a garland that you will hang up you can skip the next step. However, I wanted to make one as a stringing activity to put in my Montessori classroom. Since it would be used over and over by many children, I folded over the ends of my ribbon and sewed a button over the fold. This will make it sturdier for little hands to string and will prevent the end of the ribbon from fraying.
Next, fold your leaves in half and cut a slit in the middle as shown below.
Give your child the ribbon and a pile of leaves and let them string the leaves onto the ribbon. This is great for developing their fine motor skills.
My five-year-old loved stringing the leaves onto the ribbon. He wanted to hang it up right away. The one in the photos is the one I'll use in my preschool classroom. However, we have a TON of leaves left over so I will have him make another one that we can hang up to decorate our home for fall.
This gives you an idea of what the garland looks like with the leaves on it. So pretty for fall!
Happy Fall, Y'all! (I know it isn't officially fall yet, but fall is in the air here in the Midwest and I LOVE IT!!)
I'll try to drop in here again soon and update everyone on what we've been up to.
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