With the holidays quickly approaching, this craft is a great way to help kids – especially younger ones – become familiar with faces of loved ones they might not see very often, and hopefully help them to be more comfortable with relatives they will be spending some time with this month.
If you don’t have time to squeeze it in with all the craziness of December, it would also be a fun way to keep out-of-town relatives’ faces in kids’ minds post-holiday.
Materials Needed:
– Small poster board; we used the foamcore type for stability
– 3 – 5 pieces of scrapbook/craft paper (more as needed)
– Glue
– Photos with clear view of family member faces
Assembly:
1. We started by drawing a rough tree outline in pencil on the posterboard. We looked at several ideas to figure out the best way for our branches to ‘grow’.
2. Cut out the main tree trunk and branches in several widths and lengths, glue on to poster board according to your design. We chose several fall-ish leafy colors of scrapbook paper and a textured brown for the tree itself. My daughter is 6, so of course there were a lot of sparkles! The different paper designs made it really interesting.
3. Cut the leaf paper into several wide strips lengthwise and fold in half. Cut the leaf shape out on the fold so it will be a flap that can open and close on the board. Glue the leafs on the branches where needed and let dry.
4. Cut out family member faces from printed photos. You can get several people out of one picture but try to make sure their heads are not too small. Glue faces inside the folded leafs. We also added names for the school project but that isn’t necessary at home.
5. Let it dry completely and enjoy! Kids love showing off their family and they love opening and closing the flaps of the leafs.
Overall it was a fun and easy project that I know you will enjoy!
