Five Little Leaves All Bright and Gay ...

3 November 2013

'Five Little Leaves all Bright and Gay
Were dancing about on the tree one day
A wind came powering through the town
Wooo Wooo
And one little leaf came tumbling down'

We love nursery rhymes here and sing them most days. It intrigues me how nursery rhymes have stood the test of time and how they are handed down generation to generation ... I remember by nan singing me nursery rhymes as a child and I now sing the same ones to my children. 

Nursery rhymes should not be underestimated in terms of learning, they play an important role in early childhood development by helping children to master key skills such as language and communication, physical development, social and emotional development and also number skills. 

A particular favourite is the Autumn nursery rhyme .. 'Five Little Leaves all Bright and Gay'. As children love using props with nursery rhymes, I decided to try to make a little felt autumn tree and I was really pleased with how it turned out.  This is how I did it:

Firstly I drew a tree shape onto some thick cardboard ... believe me, I am not artistic at all but this was easy and I was pleased with the result.  I then cut it out ... this is how it looked ...

Next I spread strong glue over the tree and stuck a large piece of brown felt over it, flattened out any creases and left it to dry.  Once dried, I cut around the tree, and then I had my lovely tactile, felt autumn tree ...

 

For our five little leaves .. I cut out five leaf shapes from autumn coloured felt. I used, red, orange and yellow.  I then stuck sticky back velcro onto them (if you use the 'hook' side of the Velcro, that will stick to the felt without having to use the other side of the velcro). 

 

 

 

And here it is, our little Autumn Tree ... and I must say it is probably one of the most popular props we have.  The children love taking the leaves off one by one and counting how many are left ... cheap and cheerful good fun and just the best way to learn.

 

 

 

(I also made a little stand so the tree could stand up on its own by cutting a slit in the bottom of the tree trunk and then cutting a slit into an small oblong of card and then sliding them together to make a 'cross'.)