This project was inspired by Lois Ehlert’s beautiful book“Leaf Man”. A little technology, namely stock photography and a color printer, helped me to make dozens of flat, easy-to-cut and glue leaves.1. If you are so fortunate as to live near some fall foliage, you can take the real thing to a color copier and make lots of prints of multiple leaves. Or if you are like me, nowhere near any maple trees, you can go to www.gettyone and search for “leaves, close-up”. Download the preview images, which are free, and print out on a color printer. I splurged and used photo paper as the color seems to be about 10 times brighter when I do.
2. Young students can cut out the leaves leaving about an 1/8" of white around the outside. The reason is that intricate leaf shapes can be tricky to cut right on the edge, but because the background will be white, it will look OK. Older students can be more precise and cut out the leaf exactly.
3. The leaves are then to be cut in half right down the middle, along the spine. The two sides are then glued down with a little space left in between. A body and antennae are cut from scraps pieces, or from leftover stems.
