Leaf Wind Chime Activity for Adults with Special Needs

Just gathering autumn leaves is a great activity for adults with special needs. There are so many creative autumn leaf activities you can do, and many of them are free. If you live in an area with trees, just a short walk around the garden, park,  or neighborhood should provide an abundance of leaves to craft with. 

You’ve got leaf rubbings, thank you cards, fall garlands, autumn leaf plaques, wall or window hangings, placemats, and so many more! Here’s one of our favorite autumn leaf activities for adults with special needs.

Leaf Wind Chime

Like wind chimes but not a fan of the sounds they make? Dried leaf wind chimes are a perfect way to have the best of all worlds. Here’s how to make a leaf wind chime. 

You Will Need

• 80+ small autumn leaves
• 8 little pinecones (as small as you can find)
• Iron
• Ironing board/surface to iron on
• Wax paper
• 2 bath towels, one thick and one thin
• 18-inch embroidery loop (or any size you prefer)
• Brown, white, or light brown thick sewing thread.
• Twine
• Hot glue/glue gun (optional)
• Wax candle
• 1 ceiling hook or place to hang your windchime
  

Instructions

Preparing the Leaves:

1. Collect autumn leaves in different colors such as green, orange, red, and brown. Set the leaves aside for a moment. 
2. Turn your iron onto the highest setting without steam.
3. Place the thicker bath towel on your ironing surface. 
4. Lay down a piece of wax paper onto the towel. 
5. Lay as many leaves as you can fit onto the wax paper without overlapping them.
6. Place a second piece of wax paper onto the leaves that you’ve laid out. 
7. Place your thin bath towel on top of the second piece of wax paper.
8. Iron your leaves for 25 seconds.
9. Lift the thinner towel and flip the leaves and wax paper over (keeping them together).
10. Iron again for 25 seconds. 
11. Let cool.
12. Take the top towel off. Slowly and carefully peel off the top layer of wax paper. Next, gently peel the leaves off the second piece of wax paper.

Making the Wind Chime: 

1. Wrap the twine around the embroidery hoop until it is completely covered.
2. Either tie off or hot glue the ends to the loop.
3. Cut the sewing thread into eight 3-foot-long pieces. 
4. To coat the threads with wax, pull them tightly over the side of an unlit candle using a back and forth tree saw motion. You can also do this before cutting them into 3-foot pieces.
5. Tie the eight threads and tie them (spaced evenly apart) to the embroidery ring.
6. Tie the threads around the leaf stems, spacing them randomly.
7. Attach one pinecone to the bottom of each of the threads as weights.
8. Cut three 13-inch pieces of twine. 
9. Tie the twine, evenly spaced, around the embroidery ring. 
10. Hold up your windchime by the newly-cut twine lengths, making sure that the embroidery ring is as horizontally straight as possible.
11. Hold the four strings together and tie a loop until it’s fairly tight but not all the way tightened.
12. Gently set the windchime aside.
13. If you don’t already have one, add a hook to your indoor or outdoor ceiling wherever you’d like to hang your autumn leave windchime.
14. Hang the windchime onto the hook. 
15. Holding the knot at the top, tug the four twine strings as needed to straighten out the windchime.
16. You’re done!

The Gardens in the Stephen's Place Community

About Stephen’s Place

Stephen’s Place is an independent apartment community for adults with developmental and intellectual disabilities, located in Vancouver, WA (7 minutes from Portland, OR).

Stephen’s Place is a private-pay apartment community due to our state-of-the-art amenities and programs. We are a nonprofit and do not profit from our community.

We are private pay because we spend more than some housing communities to ensure that our residents are comfortable and can safely live their lives with independence and dignity.