🍂 Play Post - Leaf booklet
This week: Gather the season and keep a little piece of it.
These last November days, I keep seeing trees with just a handful of leaves left — the final ones holding on, almost stubborn, as if they’re not quite ready to let go. And each time I notice them, it hits me again: okay, this is it… the slow slide toward winter has really begun.
I’ve been walking through my neighbourhood feeling a little sentimental about it all — the shift, the softening, the colours easing their way out one by one. I’m not very good with goodbyes, so this week I wanted to do something small we can keep. A leaf book: my way to hold onto a few colours, a few shapes, a few moments from this season. Nothing big, just a way to stay with autumn for one minute longer.
This Week’s Idea: Make a leaf book
You’ll need:
One favourite leaf (or a few)
4–5 sheets of A4 paper
Glue or a paperclip
A pen or pencil
Optional: a stapler
How to Begin
Pick one leaf you really love — the one that feels special for no clear reason. Then choose one of these two simple ways:
1. Leaf-as-the-cover booklet (the simple folded version)
Take your 4–5 sheets of A4 paper and fold them all in half.
This becomes your little booklet. Place your leaf on the front and glue it down like a cover. Inside, write a few lines. For example: “today looked like this” or “this was my colour of the day”.
You can stop here — it’s already a beautiful little autumn book (see image below). Or, if you want, cut the inside pages into the same shape as the leaf, so the whole booklet echoes its outline (see the image of my booklet at the top of this post).
To fasten, you can use a paperclip or put one or two staples through the fold.
2. The fill-a-book version (for kids who love collecting)
Fold the same stack of A4 pages in half to make a plain little booklet (or you can use a ready-made journal). Glue your favorite leaf on the cover. Then go outside and collect a few more leaves — small ones, funny ones, ones with holes, anything that catches your eye.
Glue one leaf onto each page and write a tiny note next to it —
a word, a colour, a scribble, or or a tiny drawing.
Fun Facts to Share
🍁 Some trees drop their leaves all at once; others let them fall one by one — like a slow goodbye.
🍂 Brown leaves aren’t “dead leaves” — they’re leaves that have finished their job and given everything back to the tree. They will become the compost for a whole new year of growth.
🍃 A leaf is never the same colour twice — every day it changes a little, even if you don’t notice it.
If you make one, send me a photo. I’d love to see your colours — the bright ones, the crumpled ones, the ones that didn’t match at all.
Want to remember this later? Print it. Tape it to the fridge.
If you’re using the Keepsake Journal, you can stick down your favourite leaf of the week — or one small page from your booklet.
We’ll be back next Friday.
What is Play Post?
Every Friday, you’ll find one simple idea in your inbox — something to try outdoors, with your child or just with yourself.
Something you can make, discover, feel, or simply notice. It won’t take much. But it might stay with you longer than you’d expect.
A tiny ritual of connection — to the season, to your child, to yourself.