Christmas Tree Craft-Math Activity

As a daycare provider, I am always on the look out for new crafts that suit a variety of ages.  We just finished a cute Christmas tree craft that worked well for toddlers all the way up to first graders.  Plus, there was very little prep.  I love to highlight new skills as we craft and my daycare parents enjoy hearing the children talk about their pictures using ‘academic’ language at the end of the day.

You will need:

Construction paper in green, yellow, brown and a plain background colour

( I had the children colour their own tree trunks because we had no brown)

Glue stick

Paint

Q-Tips

Rulers

Math Activity Levels:

Toddler-

Use simple language to describe the different sizes of green strips (small, medium, large).  Count the green paper strips. The Toddlers received their trees already assembled and simply had to glue on the star and trunk.  They then used Q-tips to dip into paint and dabbed on colourful decorations for their Christmas trees.

Preschooler-

The preschool children received pre-cut strips of green paper.  I traced outlines on the background paper so they could match up the lengths of green paper from longest to shortest.  They glued the green strips on from the longest to the shortest. We talked about comparing sizes of objects. The preschoolers glued on their stars and trunks.  Then they decorated their trees using Q-tips dipped in paint to add ornaments.

School Age-

The school age children were divided into two groups.  The first group received pre-cut green strips of paper.  They used rulers to measure the length of each strip.  Then they ordered the strips from greatest to least using the measurements.  After they had glued on the green paper strips in the corresponding order they finished their craft with a star and trunk.  They added their own decorations using paint and markers.

The second group of children received a big piece of green paper and the measurements they needed to cut for each strip.  They used their rulers and scissors to make the green strips then glued them on in the proper order.  They finished their trees with a variety of different decorating techniques.

The children enjoyed crafting their trees and we had some fun with measuring and comparing lengths.  Happy Crafting this holiday season!