Make a Fall Tree

You can make an adorable fall tree using leaves from your yard, a few items from your recycle bin, some glue, scissors and a marker. In the past I have made trees with little ones in a similar way--only I used to have them paint the "trunk" and use tissue paper for the leaves. That is still a great way to do this project, but I needed to make some changes to fit our current situation--all of our art supplies are in storage and I have no room for tissue paper or paint. So instead of painting our tube, we covered it with the white side of a long receipt, added some detail with a marker, and used real leaves we collected outside.

1. Start digging in your recycle bin. You will need a paper towel tube, a piece of cardboard for the base (we cut a circle from a cereal box), and a long receipt or other paper that you can use to cover the tube. We made a white birch tree. Feel free to make any tree you wish. 2. Cover the tube with glue and cover it with your receipt.

3. Cut short (1/2 inch) slits along the bottom. These will be folded back and glued to the cardboard to secure your tree to a base. Cut longer slits along the top. These can be various lengths as they will become the branches of your tree.

4. Add detail to the bark with a marker.

5. Cut a hole in the tree so a little critter can have a home in your tree.

6. Fold back the little tabs you cut on the bottom of the tube. Apply a generous squirt of white glue to each tab and press firmly to the cardboard base. Have your child hold it in place while you count to 100 together. That will give the glue enough time to keep the tree in place though it will not be sturdy enough to lift and move around for a few hours.

7. Fold back the branches and glue on some leaves. Add some leaf litter, pebbles and grass below.

8. We stopped here, but may come back to this later and add some fun details--a nest, squirrel, birds, a swing, tree house, etc. You could make an entire forest--the possibilities are endless!