My kids love crafts, and I love when I can find one that works several skills at once. This preschool Christmas tree craft is just such a project!
It’s a multi-step process, so it builds concentration and patience.
The cutting step gives their hand muscles a work out and improves their fine motor skills.
The gluing gives them even more fine motor practice and requires careful attention to detail.
It’s also super fun.
Here’s what you need:
- construction paper: 2 colors, green and a background color of your choice
- glue stick
- child scissors
- sequins or glitter
- clear or white glue
- a crayon, pen, or marker
The first two steps are prep steps for the parents: Start by using your crayon (or pen or marker) to draw the outline of a tree on your piece of construction paper. Next, cut the green paper into strips, about an inch wide.
When you’re ready, have your child cut the strips of green paper into small pieces (we call them snips). Gather the snips into a pile or place them in a bowl to keep them together.
When they’ve snipped enough pieces to fill the tree, then they can move on to gluing. The goal is to create a collage by filling the tree outline with the green snips.
(I like the purple disappearing glue sticks, because they make it obvious where there is glue and where there is not.)
When the tree is all filled in, it’s time to decorate it! We had a bag of sequins in our art cabinet, so I pulled out a handful of those for William to use. I put the dots of glue on the tree for him, and then he placed a sequin on it.
The final step was just taking my crayon again and outlining the tree one last time to make the shape obvious. I think that his tree turned out rather well, and it was such fun to make.
I love crafting with my kids because it gives us time to work side by side and chat while we work. I always find that we have deeper conversations and opportunities for filling those emotional bank accounts in these moments, which is definitely a plus during the busy holiday season.
I hope your family enjoys this preschool Christmas tree craft as much as we did!