Create your own Leaf Mobile

This time of year is beautiful with all of the rich colours of the falling leaves. Why not try and capture a bit of that autumn beauty to bring indoors by making your very own leaf mobile! It's a great activity to get kids outdoors and trying to find as many leaves as they can with different shapes and colours.

What you will need:

Colourful leaves

A heavy book for pressing (yellow pages work well!)

Clear sticky back plastic / contact paper

Tree branch (found on the ground, not on a tree!)

Thread

How to make your leaf mobile:

1. Collect fallen leaves - try and find as many different types and colours as you can.
2. Press the leaves between the pages of a heavy book for a couple of days to flatten them (the Yellow Pages work well!).
3. For each leaf, cut two squares of sticky back plastic about an inch wider than your leaf.
4. Peel the backing off one of the squares, lay it down sticky side up and place your leaf in the centre. Peel the backing of the second square and carefully place it on top.
5. Punch a hole in the plastic above the leaf (at the stem end).
6. Carefully trim the plastic around the leaf, making sure to leave a small border.
7. Hang the leaves from a branch using thread and find a suitable place to hang your mobile. How about suspending it from a curtain pole?
8. Now you can enjoy autumn all year round!

Have a go at identifying what tree your leaves have come from. Here's a leaf identification guide to give you a hand.