Autumn leaf bunting

Activity

Collect autumn leaves to create a seasonal display. 

  • Estimated time: 60 minutes
  • Location: Outdoors & Indoors
  • School term: Early Autumn, Late Autumn
  • Level of experience: No experience needed
  • Subject(s): Science, Art&DT

Learning objectives

  • Use natural materials as a form of art
  • Learn how to press leaves
  • Learn about the different tree leaves found in the UK
  • Learn about the changing seasons and how this affects plants
  • Make a decoration or display for your garden, window, classroom or home

Preparation

  1. Collect your autumnal leaves. You could do this as part of a walk or outdoor activity. If collected on a rainy day, (or sometimes even on a dry day) your collected leaves may be a little damp. If they are wet, then dry them off by gently dabbing them with tissues, kitchen paper or a dishtowel.
  2. Use our pressing flowers and leaves activity to learn how to flatten and press your collected leaves. It will take at least 2-4 weeks for the leaves to fully dry out. The time it takes for your leaves to dry out will depend on the size of your leaves, how wet they are when you press them and the thickness of them and their stalks.

Equipment

  • Access to trees and leaves. These can be from your local area, a woodland walk or your school grounds.
  • Tree leaf spotter guide
  • Dried and pressed autumn leaves
  • A plant press or way to press you leaves
  • Pressing flowers and leaves activity for guidance
  • Newspaper or thick corrugated cardboard and blotting paper or kitchen roll 
  • Tracing paper, paper or card for your bunting
  • String, twine, bunting cord, ribbon or thread
  • Safety sowing needle
  • A hole punch
  • PVA glue and glue spreaders or paint brushes
  • Blue tack, pins or sticky tape to put up your bunting

Alternative bunting options for older children and adults

Delicate leaf bunting

  1. Collect and press your leaves.
  2. Using thread and a safety needle, pierce through each of your pressed leaves slowly and carefully.
  3. Now hang up your delicate leaf bunting and watch your leaves sway in the wind.

Peg leaf bunting

  1. Collect and press your leaves.
  2. Gather strong string and lots of pegs.
  3. Hang the string where you want your leaves to be seen.
  4. Now space out the pegs all the way along the length of string.
  5. Once you have done this get each child to peg up their collected leaves by the stalk or stem of the leaf. Be careful when doing this as the pressed leaves will be very thin and delicate.

Step by step

  1. Collect and dry off your autumn leaves. Then follow the guidance in the preparation section to press your leaves. It can take two to four weeks until they are fully dry and ready to use.
  2. Once your leaves are dried, it is time to make some bunting. Using a pencil and ruler, draw triangle shapes onto paper. Then cut them out using scissors.
  3. Use a hole punch to make holes at the top of your paper bunting shapes.
  4. Use glue and glue spreaders or paint brushes to stick your pressed leaves onto your bunting.
  5. Cut a length of string or thread and wind it through all of your bunting. Remember to space the bunting out along the length of string or thread. We find doubling up the string makes the bunting stronger. If you don’t want to punch holes in the bunting you could glue ribbon to each side as an alternative to string.
  6. Hang your bunting in a window or on a wall to display.
     

Why leaves change colour and fall in the autumn

Leaves are green throughout the spring and summer as they are filled with chlorophyll. Through photosynthesis, chlorophyll creates sugars that feed the leaves and tree, keeping them healthy.

In the autumn, temperatures get lower and there are less hours of sunlight. This reduces photosynthesis and chlorophyll in the leaves allowing the wonderful autumn colours to shine through. The yellow and orange leaf colours are caused by a chemical called carotenoids, this is in leaves all year round but the stripping away of the chlorophyll allows it to show in the leaves.

Trees that have red and purple leaves in the autumn are even more special. These trees have a chemical called anthocyanin in them that builds up in especially dry and sunny weather, when there is concentrated sugars in the leaves. So when the chlorophyll becomes reduced in the autumn, these anthocyanins get to show off their vivid reds and purples, making for a stunning autumn display.

As the leaves change colour, this is the tree absorbing all the sugars and nutrients it can from them, allowing it to get ready for the winter ahead. Once the tree has done this through a process called abscission, the leaves will start to fall off.

This process starts when the leaf is just a bud and a chemical called auxin creates a join between the leaf stalk and the tree stem. As the weather changes in the autumn months, there is less auxin produced in the tree, this helps break this join. Then through abscission, the leaf will break off and fall to the ground.

Hints & tips

  • Ideally your leaves should be really dry when you collect them. Our top tip is to collect them on a dry day around lunchtime or in the afternoon so they aren’t damp from early morning dew or frosts. This will help ensure they are the driest they can be when you gather them.
  • Collect a mix of different sized, shaped and coloured leaves to make your bunting extra special.
  • Remember evergreens such as holly have very thick leaves, so may be tricky to press.
  • If you don’t have a plant press you can use a big, heavy book to press your leaves. Protect the books pages by adding layers of thin card, tracing paper or blotting paper between the page and the leaves you are pressing. This helps prevent the book pages getting damp or damaged.
  • You could use any spare pressed leaves to make botanical bookmarks, garden sun catchers, herbarium specimens, create a plant scrap book or use them in other arts and crafts.
  • Did you know that the carotenoids found in tree leaves is also the chemical that makes your carrots orange and yellow?