This was a fun little time-filling activity after breakfast one morning that the girls both loved working on together. Painting and decorating their own little Christmas tree using recycled materials. A lovely little memento for us to treasure and display each Christmas too!
I very simply and quickly cut out a rough Christmas tree shape from the side of a cardboard box (our ultimate favourite art and craft material!) with a rectangle at the bottom of the tree stump to fold back later to form a stand. The girls painted it green with some basic water-based paints. You could alternatively use green card or cover the base in green tissue paper, wrapping paper or magazine collage.
We pulled out our Jar of Wonder which is permanently crammed full of scraps of wonderful bits and bobs, some left over felt pieces, pom poms, foam bits, sweet wrappers, coloured match sticks, ribbons, tin foil, stickers etc! They chose their own pieces and decorated the tree using them, sticking them on with clear PVA glue and a paintbrush.
Then the obligatory shake shake shake of the green glitter pot all over, very liberally 🙂
Ta da! All finished and ready to stand up for display on the mantlepiece or bookshelf.
Learning Links:
- PHSE: working together to complete a project collaboratively
- Creativity: exploring a range of media in 2 and 3 dimensions, combining materials
- KUW: Understanding that we decorate Christmas trees as part of our celebrations and talking about why
You might also like to check out our collaborative Handprint Christmas Tree that we made last year!
That looks like a lot of fun, all that sticking must’ve been great for their fine motor skills too! It has given me an idea for a Christmas present for my youngest…a jar of wonder! He will LOVE it 🙂
I’m new to your site, and wondering…What is PVA glue?
That looks lovely. Thanks for sharing it with us.