Leaf fridge magnets
It’s half term in Wiltshire and, once again, we’ve had little helpers in the office. In an effort to keep them entertained, we came up with a project they could do without any assistance from us – turning autumn leaves into fridge magnets.
Our office fridge has worn many different fridge magnets over the years but this is the first time we’ve taken something natural and turned it into a fridge magnet and the 8 and 10 year old did it all themselves.
You will need:
- A laminator
- Laminating pouches
- Leaves
- Scissors
- Self adhesive neodymium magnets
The leaves were carefully dried and gently flattened without destroying them too much. A drier leaf laminates better but is more likely to disintergrate when handled. They were then gently inserted into the laminating pouuches
Prepare the leaves for laminating
Once the laminator was up to temperature, the leaves were careful fed into the machine. It took a bit of practice because some of the leaves had got a bit brittle. But the children soon got the hang of it and we ended up with an impressive pile of laminated leaves.
Laminated leaves
We were now ready to cut around the leaves, a little adult help was required with some because of the funny shapes and the children needed to learn to leave a margin of laminated plastic around the outside of each leaf.
Don’t forget to leave a border of laminated plastic around the outside of each leaf!
Once done, the final bit was easy – remove the magnets from the paired strip and take of the paper backing before sticking the magnet straight onto the back of each leaf.
Peel off the backing and stick straight onto the back of each leaf
The last job was to arrange the leaves all over the office fridge. We’re really impressed with the children’s work. The fridge looks suitably autumnal and it only took them 30 minutes to do. Well done, Kids!