Christmas Tree
Christmas
Island Style
I don’t know about you , but we are in need of a little island get away, a real trip isn’t in the cards but at art time today we decided to make a little Hawaiian themed Christmas tree to transport us to a place a little warmer and a tad bit more exotic. Don’t be fooled by how cute this craft is, it’s also got a few great lessons hidden in it too. The sand and pom poms offer fun sensory discovery to make this a really worthwhile island getaway!
- Gather your materials. You will need 3 pieces of construction paper ( 2 light, 1 of any color you want), green and brown paint, some pom poms, glue, some sparkly ribbon, scissors, a marker and sand.
- Start by drawing the outline of a palm tree trunk.
- Now draw the leaves.
- Hand those to your child to paint.
We used do-a-dot dobbers but any paint will work. Let dry.
- Make a large dot of glue for each pom pom, I ended up adding more later .
- Add the pom poms. Let dry.
- Cut out the trunk and glue it on the 3rd piece of paper.
- Add a whole bunch of glue to the base of the truck and all around the bottom of the paper.
- Add the sand, if you don’t have ( or don’t want) loose sand try a piece of sandpaper cut to size. Let dry.
- Cut 2 small pieces of sparkly ribbon
- Glue them to the truck to make garland. At this point my son was knee deep in sand and had no interest in glue, so if I were you I would do this step before the sand.
- Cut out the leaves , glue on the trunk.
- Maliki Liki Maka !
More Island Cheer !
From the very start Sarah over at Ohana Mama has been a huge cheerleader for us, and I can’t just ignore the amazing things going on over at her little bit of paradise . I don’t know if you heard but they are giving away an Ergo baby carrier , and lots of other great things! I love my Ergo and my son who is 2 still jumps in it, most recently at a failed attempt to see the mall Santa, my son was happy to be tightly snuggled next to mom and not in that bad man’s lap. Her Hawaiian Holiday Giveaway is almost over so jump in and win that Ergo !
From the very start Sarah over at Ohana Mama has been a huge cheerleader for us, and I can’t just ignore the amazing things going on over at her little bit of paradise . I don’t know if you heard but they are giving away an Ergo baby carrier , and lots of other great things! I love my Ergo and my son who is 2 still jumps in it, most recently at a failed attempt to see the mall Santa, my son was happy to be tightly snuggled next to mom and not in that bad man’s lap. Her Hawaiian Holiday Giveaway is almost over so jump in and win that Ergo !
I was unpacking all my Christmas decorations and when I opened the box of used bows some were a little misshapen, which is perfect for this craft! So I gathered them and my son up and we made this tree that is now adding some shine to our foyer.
- Gather your materials. You will need some strong paper my favorite choice are grocery bags, a marker, some green paint ( optional) , glue , a bunch of Christmas bows , some wax paper and heavy books!
- Start by drawing a large outline of a Christmas tree. As you can see there is no need for it to be perfect it’s just getting covered anyway!
- Paint the tree if you want, this fills in any gaps between bows and also adds some extra fun, but is totally optional.
- Add the glue , lots and lots of glue!
- Add your bows. Older children can try to make patterns , or stripes of different colors.
I helped fill in the tree , after my son had done 5 or 6 by himself, I asked him which color he wanted and I found the right size in that color to fit. Older children can do it all by themselves though. - Lay some wax paper on top of your tree and lay some heavy books on for about an hour, this will keep all the bouncy bows in place until the glue gets tacky.
- When the glue is dry cut the extra paper off and you have a fun and “Bow”tiful tree!
Additional Activities
Matching, Sorting and Counting Oh My !
Matching, Sorting and Counting Oh My !
All of these activities are crucial pre-math exercises, introducing your child to them with a novel manipulative like Christmas Bows is fun and memorable for little guys. We want to challenge children when they are learning so if 3 colors are too easy , add another, if they are struggling take one away. When kids are challenged the lesson will mean more and will sink in , however if it’s too hard, it will frustrate them and a frustrated toddler or preschooler is fun for no one!
- There is no need for fancy containers , I just used matching construction paper but if you have something fun to pop the bows into go for it! Start with labeling the colors and matching them with the paper.
- Next try counting them, each color, all together, whatever you want.
- Find the largest bow and find the smallest.
- With preschoolers you can play a guessing game , stuff all the bows in the bowl and ask them to make a prediction about how many bows are in the bowl, count and find out !
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