While I am always sad when summer ends, I do love the burst of color that fall brings to our area. Most of this color comes from leaves before they fall from the trees. During our fall theme we love to collect leaves and place them on our science table, where we explore them with magnifying glasses and sort them by color. Since our classroom has huge picture windows, suncatchers are very visible. I decided to invite my two and three year olds to take some of leaves and create paper plate suncatchers.
That’s no surprise if you’ve been following Teaching 2 and 3 Year Olds for awhile! Some examples:
Apple Suncatchers Star Suncatchers Valentine Suncatchers Rainbow Suncatchers
There’s even more, but I don’t want to keep you here all day. (Unless you want to! If so, put “suncatchers” into the blog’s search box and you will see them all.) I’ve used templates with some of them (such as these leaf suncatchers we did a few years ago), but I found an even easier way to create suncatchers: paper plates. If you saw my spring suncatchers, you are familiar with this method. What takes the most prep is cutting out the Contact paper, but it’s worth it. Let me show you how they are done!
Now, the prep.
Gather enough paper plates so each of the children has one. Cut out the centers so that you only have the rims of the paper plates. (Save the circle centers for a future painting activity!) Punch a hole in the rim for the string. (I don’t add the string until after they are painted.) Cut pieces of Contact paper so that they are large enough to cover the opening in the center of the plate. You will want two per suncatcher. Keep the paper backing on until ready to use.
Step One
Paint the rims of the paper plates. Let dry completely.
If you are stacking these while waiting for the children to press the leaves on their suncatchers, stick the backing back on the sticky side to prevent anything from sticking to them.
If you applied the paper backings, remove them.
If this is your children’s first time using Contact paper, they might first be intrigued by the sticky feeling. They also might try to pull off what they put on. Just a heads up!
Their choice!
Hang in the window!
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