There are many ways to make a Christmas tree as a holiday craft activity. Which one is easy and nice? We want to make that one!
No.😏 Not for me and not for my students. You know what I think important when designing an activity. What matters is the process, not the product.
The tree that I want to show you here today is definitely not the prettiest or most realistic one, however, it leaves a big room for children to just focus on and enjoy each action of the process of making the tree.
MATERIALS you need:
- pieces of construction paper
- corrugated cardboard
- scissors
- glue
I used only green and yellow green construction papers because that was all I had, but if you have different shades of green, feel free to put all out.
Let children observe different shades of green!
When children see papers and scissors, they almost immediately start cutting papers into small pieces. Especially toddlers who are still in the phase of learning the scissor skills! They just like the action of cutting! 😝 So, just put out papers and scissors like that in the photo and encourage children to cut any shapes.
When they get bored of free cutting, you can introduce this technique.
Snip it one time, stopping before reaching the other side of paper, and then move to the side and snip again. It’s a very good activity to just try their hand actions for scissoring again and again.
It doesn’t matter what shape the paper is. You can collect random pieces of paper in the house and give to your child, or your child can start from a big piece of paper and gradually cut it into smaller pieces and snip around the edges.
When many green papers are cut, you introduce this technique.
Make each piece of paper look like a tree leaf by bending and folding the edges into different directions.
Then, children can start gluing them on a background paper. To give ideas, I would put out some real photos of evergreen tree on the table beside papers and scissors.
They can make their trees on a white background paper, or for younger children, you can cut out a tree shape out of corrugated board or cardboard and then children can just glue the paper leaves on them.
When they use a pre-shaped cardboard to put the leaves on, the parts that went out of the shape can be trimmed easily at the end.
Alright, let’s move to the second part of the Christmas tree making. Decorating!!
Again, we are going to incorporate a fun process here.
MATERIALS you need:
- pieces of construction papers
- hole punch
- glue
First, show how to use the hole punch. Remove the bottom cover of the hole punch and let the circles fall as it makes holes.
Give many paper pieces in different colours. Adding different kinds of papers – matt, glossy, glittered, thin, thick – will give children an opportunity to explore and test –> INQUIRY
If they got enough circles, they can start gluing them on the tree.
It’s okay if their trees are in square shape or upside-down triangle. It’s okay if they got tired and only put two or three circles on their trees. If they enjoyed snipping papers to make tree leaves and punching holes to make decorations, that is enough for this activity.
You can set this up as an independent activity or do it together with your child and spend a quality time.
I hope you enjoy this process-focused Christmas tree activity.🎄
Happy quality time!
Missangela👩🏻🦰🎀