Nature's Ballerinas - A Fun Autumnal Craft for Kids

I absolutely love Autumn. As much as I love the Summer and enjoyed the freedom of early morning runs and long sunny afternoons in the garden, I love it when the nights start to draw in too. The colours that Autumn brings with the oranges, yellows, reds and golds is absolutely stunning, and as a blogger – its pretty much a photography dream! 🙂 We love heading out as a family for walks by the canal, and having a bit of a scavenger hunt as we go, collecting conkers, acorns and pretty leaves for craft activities when we get home.

When the seasons change however it can be MUCH harder to keep little ones entertained at home.

Here is a super cute fun Autumnal activity to do with your children – Nature’s Autumn Leaf Ballerinas – which not only keeps them quiet and entertained for ages, but is relatively mess free and requires very little in terms of resources to get involved too.

Using my free printables you can print off the ballerina leaf designs before collecting your favourite leaves to turn into beautiful autumn coloured tutus and dresses.

First up – head off on an Autumn walk with the kids and ask them to collect the prettiest dress shaped leaves they can find. It’s good to try and get a real mix of colours and shapes, but the maple leaf style work well. Whilst the giant ones look fab, you’re probably best to get slightly smaller ones as these work best with our templates.

When you’re back home, warmed up and have got your slippers on, print off your FREE Nature’s Ballerina printables by clicking on these downloadable PDF links below:

Upright Ballerinas – Free Printable

Dancing Ballerinas – FREE printable

Before you start sticking, lay out your leaves and practise moving them around to see which ones look best. You may find some just don’t work at all (we certainly had a few rejects), but some laid together can create a really pretty skirt like effect.

When you are happy with which leaves fit best where, bring out the glue and get them to apply generously to the paper before sticking their leaves into place. You may find some of the edges curl up slightly but that can actually add to the effect. We used a glue stick, but any kid safe glue should do.

Sit back and watch as your children’s ballerinas come to life! I love the finished effect of these and Neve had loads of fun creating her different outfits.