I came across this craft at Better Homes and Gardens. The instructions are confusing but the craft itself is relatively simple.
http://www.bhg.com/thanksgiving/crafts/ ... s/#page=11

My Instructions:

1. Fold a piece of craft paper 8x11(accordian pleat) along the long edge. Without unfolding it, bend it in half.
2. Open the sheet up and fold it in half with the short sides together. Place the template along the fold and cut it out.
3, Open it up again and refold along the accordian pleats. You will have a short end and a longer end. Run a glue stick along the longer end and place the pipe cleaned across the middle so half is on each side.
4. Bend the paper in half so that the two sides of the longer edge meet and twist the pipecleaner ends together to form the stem.
Viola! A maple leaf! I had some large orange napkins left over from dd's birthday party and these worked well. Kids can paint paper or use an old toothbrush dipped in paint and flick the bristles to spray paint onto paper for that mottled look.

I have only a second -- look in RESOURCES -- perhaps in the Food as a Reward thread?

It may be that I've not got that thread (full body) pulled over here -- so you may need to search at the archived site for now.

Hope this gets you started.

Thank your teacher too!

i'm sure this has been posted somewhere on this board but i'm looking for a list of suggestion to send to my dd's teacher. she already has some great ideas but said she'd love more so parents could have more options and know that shes not trying to eliminate celebrations. thanks so much