Tree Shape Collage

What you need

• green paper, or white paper coloured green with crayons
• scraps of shiny wrapping paper
• child scissors
• sticky tape
• a big sheet of paper
• a star sticker

How to do it

1. Draw three triangles on the green paper, a big one, a middle one and a little one, and let your child snip them out.
2. Lay them on the big sheet, biggest at the bottom, and talk about the shape: three sides, three corners, a point at the top.
3. Tape them down together to make a tree, and colour a little square trunk underneath.
4. Snip little circles and stars from the shiny paper and tape them on as decorations.
5. Add the star sticker on top and hang the tree on the wall at their height.

Why it matters

Snipping and arranging triangles is real shape and size work, and decorating with shiny bits makes it their own tree.

What they're learning

Snipping

Cutting along a line with child scissors takes control of both hands.

Shapes

Three sides and three corners: a triangle they made themselves is easy to remember.

Big, middle, little

Putting the biggest at the bottom is ordering by size.

What to look for

Watch for them turning the paper, not the scissors, to follow the line.

A tip

Keep the scissors on the table and put them away when the snipping is done. Stick a few pieces of tape along the table edge first so they are easy to grab.

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