Christmas Tree Art

This Christmas tree art is quick to set up and simple to do. And it gives early learners a chance to explore color shades and brightness.

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Supplies to Collect

green, yellow and white tempera paint
12-inch x 18-inch sturdy paper
paint palettes
paintbrushes
paper towel squares
metallic green star confetti
gold and green Christmas gift bows

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Making The Christmas Tree Art

Cut long, narrow triangles from large sheets of sturdy paper. Shown below is manila paper.

Pour dark green, medium green, yellow, and white tempera paint into artist palettes. This color scheme works well when children keep the colors separate or do a lot of blending.

Invite your early learners to paint a triangle. They will embrace painting a unique shape.

Christmas tree art set up with white, yellow, and green paint hues.

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A paper towel works well to dab excess paint from the brush before switching to a new color. This is a helpful tip from Patty Palmer’s book “Draw, Paint, Sparkle.”

Painting technique to use when switching paint colors.

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Next, have your little charges sprinkle on metallic stars while the paint is still wet. They will loooove doing this too!

Painted triangular tree ready to be topped with a Christmas gift bow.

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When the tree art is dry, spray on unscented hairspray from an aerosol can to help the stars stay on. (This is the first year I searched for unscented hairspray to use as a fixative. It was worth the time and slightly greater expense.)

Lastly, have your little learners pick a Christmas gift bow to stick on top of their tree.

A Christmas gift bow is the topper for this painted Christmas tree craft.

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Discussing triangle shapes, using beautiful finishing touches, seeing how white added to darker green makes different shades, and noticing how yellow lightens and brightens green are some learning possibilities for this craft.

And these Christmas tree art projects look absolutely beautiful displayed together.