If you haven’t had the pleasure of discovering Lois Ehlert, award-winning author and illustrator of over 20 children’s books, then I highly recommend that you take a trip to your local library and check her out! This month I was reading one of my favourite Ehlert books, “Leaf Man.” For weeks the children have been bringing in leaves they have discovered on their way to school and I wanted to find a way to celebrate and encourage their discoveries. “Leaf Man” is a story about a man made of leaves who blows across the sky over several other leaf-composed creatures (birds, farm animals, etc.). After reading this book with my students, I created a provocation of leaves, stones, and sticks and asked the children if they could create their own leaf creature. In addition to composing pictures with found materials, I was also looking for children to express a connection with/understanding of the story we read as well as demonstrate some story telling/imaginative skills when talking about what they had made. Here are a few samples of the students’ work and thinking:
R.K: My leaf man is doing a cartwheel just like I can do on my trampoline at home!
A: This is a portrait of a Leaf Man. It’s about a Leaf Man that flew away, up, up, up, and his leaves fell down on him because he was blown away by a storm.
A.F.: I used rocks for his eyes and nose. His mouth is a smiling leaf. I used sticks for the legs and ripped the leaves to make his hands and feet. My Leaf Man will fly over lots of things!
E.A.: My Leaf Girl only has one leg because no other leaves can stand still. My Leaf Girl is flying over chickens! The wind is blowing her.
J.M: My Leaf Man is lying down and looking at the clouds to see what shapes they are. He saw a special cloud that looked like a house!
Our class quilt of leaf creations:
The Curious Kindergarten 
I love this idea using “Leaf Man’. Could you please tell me how you glued down the pieces? Was it hot glue?
Hi Gail! Thank you! We actually didn’t glue the leaves…this was transient art that we captured in photographs. I printed the photographs afterwards and then put them together in quilt form (with the children’s descriptions of their work).
What do you use to print your photos?
For this project I just printed these ones at a photo printing shop. Probably Costco. I sometimes print on a colour printer or print black and white from the school copier. It depends on the project.
Hello!
Are you able to tell me what your little write up says?
Thanks!
If you click on the photo it should open in its own page and you can zoom in on it.
Ha! Thought I did that and it was blurry! But nope it’s I didn’t! Thanks so much 🙂
No problem! 😊
Hi msmcdonnell. So fun to discover this web page while searching for ideas for developing a “Leaf Man.” I’m a song writer and thought I had created a new character, “Leaf Man,” only to discover there is a trove of pictures and stories about Leaf Man. I particularly enjoyed the way you worked this subject with your kids. Thanks.
Much food for thought as I work on my own Leaf Man. I have the song, now just need a face. 🙂