Materials
Newspaper
liquid starch
containers
9" x 12" wax paper
paintbrushes
1" squares of tissue paper in shades of green and blue
pens
tagboard tree patterns
scissors
gold metallic paint
pencils with erasers (or very small sponges)
Instructions
1. Cover the work surface with newspaper. Pour liquid starch into containers
and give each child a 9" x 12" piece of waxed paper positioned vertically.
2. Ask the children to paint half the paper with starch. Show them how to place
tissue squares on the starch, overlapping the squares.
3. Repeat with the second half, encouraging them to fill in enough squares of
blue and green to create a large vertical triangle like a Christmas tree. Let dry.
4. When the starch has dried, ask the children to use pens to draw a large tree
shape on the waxed paper. Make sure the tree outline is large enough to take
in most of their tissue triangle. Another option is to provide 9" tagboard tree
patterns to trace.
5. Ask the children to cut out their tree along the lines they draw.
6. Pour small amounts of gold paint into shallow containers. Show the children
how to dip the eraser of the pencils into the gold paint and make randomlyspaced
dots of gold on the trees to resemble ornaments.
7. When the trees have dried, flatten them with heavy books overnight, if
necessary.
