“There is a Tribe of Kids” and Leaf Craft

There is a Tribe of Kids by Lane Smith and companion Leaf Craft

This book is GORGEOUS!  The illustrations are incredible and the story is simple, but fun.  It is about a little boy who meets different groups of animals.  For example: a colony of penguins, and smack of jellyfish.  It is so fun to learn what each group is called (“smack of jellyfish” just sounds cute right?!) and as he meets each group the little boy tries to mimic the animals and fit-in.  It is apparent thathe is full of wide-eyed wonder and has a huge and open heart.  However, it isn’t quite the perfect fit and you start to feel a bit lonely for the boy until, finally, at the end of the book he finds a tribe of kids.  It is adorable and, as I mentioned the illustrations are fantastic.

I thought that the groupings of animals were so much fun and I was so inspired by the leaves that the tribe children weary that I thought the two together would make a fun craft.  Why not make groupings of leaf animals inspired from the book?!

All you need for this craft is: a variety of leaves, a good glue stick, cardstock/cardboard, sharpie marker  I’ve told you before that some of my favorite crafts are incredibly simple and utilize supplies that you probably already have at home.   When selecting leaves really any kind will do.  However, just as a tip, they work best if they have been previously pressed flat for gluing purposes.  I picked up my leaves the night before and pressed them flat in the pages of a large book so that they were all ready to go the next morning.  Also, I used a piece of white cardboard I had lying around my house and loved its larger size for adding multiple animals.   Though the thickness was nice, card stock would work just fine as well.

Next I just glued the leaves on my cardboard in groups then free-hand drew some animals around them that were inspired from the animals in the book.  As mentioned, the smack of jellyfish and the colony of penguins were two of my favorites and seemed to match the shape of my leaves, so that is what I went with.  The jellyfish were SUPER easy so if you are doing this with younger children and want to give more guidance and simplify you could even just stick with some smacks of jellyfish.  Older children though will have fun creating their own leaf animals.

My little guy is just barely 3 years old so while I created groups of leaf animals he had fun simply gluing leaves on paper and scribbling around them with markers.  He loved it and hey, this is art! Make it your own.  🙂  He was very proud with what he created and it was fun to do art alongside each other.

There is a “Tribe of Kids” was released earlier this year and is available for purchase and with fall around the corner leaves will soon be in abundance, making this a the perfect season for this craft.  So grab some leaves with your little and let your creativity flow!  If you do this craft and are on Instagram (I am @book.nerd.mommy there.) then share your photos of this project under the hashtag #beyondthebook.  I’d love to see them!  These images are also pinnable so you can pin them for later as well.  Enjoy!

Click here to purchase There is a Tribe of Kids *affiliate link

If you give this Beyond the Book activity a try I’d love to hear how it goes! Share it on Instagram using hashtag #beyondthebook (I’m on Instagram as @book.nerd.mommy) or even just comment here with your thoughts. It would make my day! Or to simply save for later pin the image below.