Craft a leaf crown

You’ll need

Scissors
Double sided sticky tape
Natural materials (for example, leaves, twigs, feathers)
Paper (green or brown works best)

Before you begin

Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Take a look at our guidance to help you carry out your risk assessment, including examples.
Make sure all young people and adults involved in the activity know how to take part safely.
Make sure you’ll have enough adult helpers. You may need some parents and carers to help if you’re short on helpers.

Planning and setting up this activity

Plan how you’ll collect leaves. If you can, see if everyone can join in as part of the activity. You might have access to trees around your meeting place. If you don’t, you could visit a park or woodland area together.
You could collect leaves for everyone to use or ask everyone to bring some leaves with them too.
You can use craft leaves or make leaves out of paper for a longer lasting crown.
You can use any colour of paper. Green or brown looks great with leaves, but if you’ve got another colour, you can use that instead.

Running this activity

Gather everyone together and tell them you’re going to make a leaf crown.
People should start by making the base of their crown. To do this, they should cut a strip of paper that’s long enough to fit around their head and around 8 cm wide. People may need to work together and help each other to measure the paper around their heads. If people need to, they could stick two strips together using some double sided sticky tape.
Everyone should get a small piece of double sided sticky tape, double check that their crown fits their head, then use the tape to stick the ends together to make a loop of card.
Next, take a piece of double sided sticky tape that’s long enough to go around the whole crown. They should peel the paper off one side, and stick the tape around their crown.
Now, collect the fallen leaves. It’s up to the person leading the activity whether they go just outside at the start of the meeting or now. You could also have people bring leaves and put them to one side of the meeting place.
Once they’ve gathered plenty of leaves, everyone should peel the paper off the double sided sticky tape they stuck to their crown in step three. They should get creative, pushing the leaves onto the tape until they stick.
Everyone should show off their crowns and enjoy being a part of leaf royalty!

A leaf crown made out of yellow paper with green and brown leaves attached to the front. The crown is on a tree stump.

Reflection

This activity gave everyone the chance to see the beauty of nature and be creative with the things it offers. Did people look for anything in particular when they collected their leaves? Some people may have wanted to find different sized leaves, different coloured leaves, or even different shaped leaves from different trees. Nature’s full of things that could be used to decorate crowns: can anyone think of some examples? What would they like to gather if they made another crown? People could think about petals, grass, twigs, and sticks.

Safety

All activities must be safely managed. You must complete a thorough risk assessment and take appropriate steps to reduce risk. Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Always get approval for the activity, and have suitable supervision and an InTouch process.

Outdoor activities: You must have permission to use the location. Always check the weather forecast, and inform parents and carers of any change in venue.
Gardening and nature: Everyone must wash their hands after the activity has finished. Wear gloves if needed. Explain how to safely use equipment and set clear boundaries so everyone knows what’s allowed.
Sharp objects: Teach young people how to use sharp objects safely. Supervise them appropriately throughout. Store all sharp objects securely, out of the reach of young people.