We love easy Christmas crafts in our house. The whole months of November and December are filled with holiday crafts that can double as homemade Christmas decorations. This Paper Plate Christmas Tree is not only easy to make but it helps strengthen various developmental skills for preschoolers.
Paper Plate Christmas Tree Craft
I love crafting, so I am happy that my daughter likes it too. Not every project is created around a developmental skill, but it is always an added bonus when it helps her learn.
Supplies:
Paper Plate
Construction Paper (Red, Green and Yellow)
Single Hole Punch
Scissors
Glue
Ribbon
This Christmas Tree craft started out as a simple way for my daughter to help decorate our home for the holidays. It quickly turned into a skill strengthening activity. I was pleasantly surprised.
We started out by creating the shape of the Christmas Tree with the paper plate. Cut one line, from an outer edge to the center, then stop. You’ll swing them around to create a cone shape and then glue.
Next, cover the cone with green construction paper and glue. We just wrapped the cone with the paper, glued and then cut off the excess.
Next, while that glue dries, we cut the ‘ornaments’ with the single hole punch out of red construction paper. We also cut out a star from yellow paper. These can then be glued onto the tree.
The final step is to add the ribbon. We punched holes around the bottom of the tree, about an inch spaced from each other. Grab a piece of ribbon and lace it through the holes. When you reach the back, tie the ribbon in a knot.
It’s good enough that this Christmas tree is so dang cute, but it makes me even happier that she was able to strengthen skills.
She was practicing colors as we talked about the different parts of the tree.
Fine motor skills were strengthened in multiple parts of this activity. First, by punching the holes. Using a single hole punch will help all of the hand muscles grow. It is helping the pincer grasp when she picked up the punched holes and glued them to the tree. These muscles were also strengthened when she laced the ribbon through the holes.
Strengthening fine motor skills can be done on a daily basis with easy and fun tasks just like this. These muscles are crucial for development such as zipping a zipper, tying shoes, eating, and handwriting – just to name a few. We had fun and she was strengthening all of these skills, and she had no idea!