Christmas Tree Wall Craft

My toddlers are Christmas obsessed and sticker obsessed so I decided to combine the two to create this Christmas tree wall craft! Using sparkly holographic stickers as ornaments, they got to decorate their very own paper Christmas trees. We also used white paint to paint snowflakes around the tree. My 18 month old turned her gentle snowflakes into a blizzard!

Fine Motor Skills:

Grasp patterns – pincer grasp development
Hand eye coordination
Bimanual coordination
Precision dexterity
Tool use

Bonus Skills:

Arm/shoulder strength + stability
Creativity
Increased frustration tolerance

Supplies:

Butcher or craft paper
Green + Brown construction paper
Colored construction paper
Glue
Stickers
White paint
Cotton balls, sponge brush, or q-tips

General Directions:

Tape strip of butcher or craft paper to the wall.
Cut out Christmas tree in green construction paper, and tree trunk in brown construction paper. Glue both to the butcher paper to form Christmas tree.
Let your toddler pick out a color for the star. Cut out star in construction paper.
Have your toddler glue the star to the top of their tree.
Give your toddler stickers and let them decorate with “ornaments”.
Put out white paint and provide either cotton balls, sponge brush, or q-tips. Instruct toddler to dip tool in paint and add “snowflakes” to the butcher paper.

Toddler Instructions By Age:

1-2 year olds:

If your toddler is not yet talking, put out a couple of color options for them to choice from.
Glue star to top of tree with help.
- My 18 month old kept trying to put the star on with glue side up. And she required LOTS of cuing to get it to the top. I let her put the star where ever but then her big brother decided to fix it for her!
Decorate with stickers. Puffy stickers are easiest for little fingers. Large stickers with no backing (backing can be removed from most stickers) can be used but little toddlers may need help starting to peel the stickers.
Paint snowflakes with larger tools such as cotton balls or sponge brushes.

2-3 year olds:

Depending on your toddler’s verbal ability, you can either have them point to their selection from a variety of colors or they can tell you verbally.
Glue star to top of tree with help/cuing as needed.
Decorate with stickers. Large stickers with no backing are ideal but they still may need assistance to start peeling some of the stickers.
Depending on your toddler’s ability, they may successfully be able to paint snowflakes with larger tools or with the q-tips.

3+ year olds:

Your toddler can pick their color selection verbally or by pointing.
Glue star to top of tree with help/cuing as needed. Many toddlers this age may only require verbal cuing or pointing.
Decorate with stickers. Many toddlers can peel large and small stickers with no backing. If backing is present, larger stickers are easier and they may require increase help to start peeling them.
Most toddlers this age will be able to paint snowflakes using either large or small tools.

Note:

I broke this activity up into 2 days – which worked better for my todders’ attention spans those 2 days.

Day 1 – They glued the star and decorated with stickers. I left the stickers out all day and I found them adding stickers randomly over the course of the day.
Day 2 – They painted snowflakes