How to Make a Paper Christmas Tree

What You Do:

1. Help your child use a ruler to measure out a strip on the yellow construction paper that is two inches wide and nine inches long.
2. Let him use scissors to cut out this strip.
3. Show him how to trace this narrow yellow strip on the sheet of red construction paper. He should use his pencil to trace five red strips.
4. Using this same technique, have him trace 19 narrow strips on the green construction paper.
5. Have him cut each of these strips out.
6. When he's finished, help him count each of his strips. He should have one yellow strip, five red strips, and 19 green strips.
7. Demonstrate how to make a round loop out of the yellow paper strip and tape it shut.
8. Help him thead one green paper strip through the yellow loop and tape it shut.
9. Explain to your child that the green loop will be the top of his tree. The rest of his paper loops will hang below this first loop.
10. Have him create two more green loops. He should tape each of these through the first green loop. Help him arrange the loops so that the green loops form a triangular tree shape.
11. Let him continue to add loops to his paper tree. Each new row should have one additional loop in it then the row before it.
12. As he continues to "grow" his tree, help him alternate each loop horizontally and vertically. This could happen naturally -- paper chains are made up of this back and forth pattern -- but make sure you step in and re-adjust the loops if he gets stuck.
13. Have your child work in the red paper loops into his tree as he goes along. These loops will be his festive Christmas tree decorations.
14. The last row of his tree should have only two green loops to make up the trunk.
15. Help your child hang his tree on the wall or on a door with just a piece of tape.