Of course the craft also needed to meet my requirements of minimal prep and working well in a classroom. I’m pretty pleased with how our Truffula Tree craft turned out.
Materials:
- Small Dixie cups
- 3 pennies per cup
- Masking tape
- Tissue paper, various colors
- Pipe cleaners
- Stapler
- Scissors
- Sharpie
- Spray paint
Prepare ahead of time:
Tissue paper for the trees – I pre-cut squares of 6.5" X 6.5" tissue paper
Cups for the tree base – I spray painted the cups gray and wrote the word “Unless” with a sharpie on each cup. I taped 3 pennies inside each cup using masking tape to keep the base weighted enough to hold the tree. Using the scissors, poke a small hole in the top of each cup. (It’s actually the bottom of each cup but since we’re turning them over I consider it the top.)
How to make:
Layer 3 squares of tissue paper and fold like an accordion
Fold your accordion in half (so the ends meet up). Place your pipe cleaner in the centre of your fold and staple to secure it.
Twist your pipe cleaner together to make the stem.
Gently unfold your tree by pulling the layers of tissue paper apart. This requires a gentle touch as the tissue rips easily, although it’s easy to fluff it out so the rips aren’t noticeable.
Holding your truffula tree, poke the bottom of the pipe cleaner into the base.
You’re done! Get all the kids to put their trees together for a super colorful truffula forest!
We had some great conversation about what the word “Unless” means, how it relates to our environment, and other types of “resources” we should be careful about wasting. Doing this craft in groups of 4-6 kids and asking a few key questions is a great way to tie-in this craft to Earth Day. A few suggested questions:
- At the end of the story “The Lorax”, a rock with the word “Unless” written on it is given to the author. What does the word “Unless” mean?
- What would happen if all the trees in our neighborhood and park were chopped down with a super axe hacker?
- What are other things on our earth we should be careful about wasting?
- What are some things we can do to keep our trees and earth healthy?
