Standing Straw Trees for Tu B’Shvat

Adorable trees stand up from the page!

The more you think you are making something unique, the more likely it is someone else has the same idea. While I was working on this with one kid, the other was basically creating the exact same project independently, but she was trying to use a rolled up tube of paper as a trunk. Even she had to admit that straws really worked better!

Looking for more Tu B’Shavt projects?
Toilet Paper Roll Trees for Tu B’Shvat
Mixed Media Trees for Tu B’Shvat
Lift-the-Flap Fruit Bowl for Tu B’Shvat
Foil Embossed Tree for Tu B’Shvat
Paper Forest for Tu B’Shvat

Time:
Active: 15 minutes
Drying: 15 minutes+ if using paint or glue

Age: 2-7

Materials:
Construction Paper
Glue
Disposable straws
Extras to decorate your trees – pompoms, buttons, crumpled tissue paper

Process:
Cut down a disposable straw to your desired height. Snip a small slit on each of 4 sides of one end of the straw. (If your straw has lines on it, use those as a guide). Fold the snipped portion outwards and tape each “leg” down to a piece of paper.

Using construction paper, cut out a tree top. Decorate as you wish.

On the other end of the straw, snip 2 slits on opposite sides. Slide your tree top between the slits and secure with tape.

Did you do this project? Share your pictures on our facebook page!

Paper Forest for Tu B’Shvat

Grow a paper tree for Tu B’Shvat!

Another Corona winter Sunday means bored kids. We thought about doing a project for Tu B’Shvat. It’s been a while since we did a project like this together, now that my kids are getting older they are creating their own projects! But every one from ages 4-11 enjoyed this. The 11 year old did it herself, the 4 year old drew the pictures and applied the glue and the 8 year old folded and glued. Everyone was able to participate on their own level. We hope you enjoy it too!

Looking for more Tu B’Shavt projects?
Toilet Paper Roll Trees for Tu B’Shvat
Mixed Media Trees for Tu B’Shvat
Lift-the-Flap Fruit Bowl for Tu B’Shvat
Foil Embossed Tree for Tu B’Shvat

Paper Forest for Tu B’Shvat

Time:
Active: 15-20 minutes
Drying: 15 minutes+ if using regular glue

Age: 4-10

Materials:
Tree template (download here)
Glue stick
Paint, markers or crayons
Scissors

Process:
To make 3 trees in your forest, decorate nine tree tops and nine trunks. You can use our template or draw our own, but try to keep them approximately the same size. When they are dry, cut them out.

Fold each piece in half, folding the colored portion inwards. Working in groups of 3 pieces, using a glue stick, apply glue to the outer side of the first folded piece and attach a second folded piece. Then apply glue to the exposed top layer of the second piece and attach a third. Gently pull the stack and you have created a 3-D tree top. Repeat with all the tree tops and trunk pieces. Glue the tops and trunks directly on to a piece of paper.

Decorate around your trees to complete the scene.

Did you do this project? Share your pictures on our facebook page!

Foil Embossed Tree for Tu B’Shvat

Grow a tree in your home with foil and markers!

I found the idea for this project method when searching the web. We used a print out of the shape of a tree that I modified from a google search. Using the Shivat HaMinim for this project would be very cool as well, if you have patience to glue all the string! We didn’t bother mounting our page to cardboard as the original idea suggested. We also used some cotton twine rather than yarn and hot glue so we didn’t have to wait for the glue to dry. I tried to find a path that would allow for a minimum amount of string cutting, which was around the full perimeter and then a few smaller pieces for the branches. We fed the string directly off the roll, rather than guess at how long of piece we would need.

Looking for more Tu B’Shavt projects?
Toilet Paper Roll Trees for Tu B’Shvat
Mixed Media Trees for Tu B’Shvat
Lift-the-Flap Fruit Bowl for Tu B’Shvat

Foil Embossed Tree for Tu B’Shvat

Time:
Active: 15-20 minutes
Drying: 15 minutes+ if using regular glue

Age: 6-10

Materials:
Tree template (download here)
Glue gun or regular glue
Yarn or twine
Heavy duty aluminum foil
Sharpies

Process:
I am handing this one off to the blog where I found the project originally. Find the directions here and my modifications above.

Did you do this project? Share your pictures on our facebook page!

Lift-the Flap Fruit Bowl for Tu B’Shvat

A fun lift-the-flap way to celebrate Tu B’Shvat!

Tu B’Shvat always seemed misunderstood to me. Why eat dried Turkish apricots to celebrate the New Year of the trees? Intrinsically, Tu B’Shvat is the start of the new year for counting trumot and maasrot that were taken as tithes from fruit in the time of the Beit HaMikdash. Once the Jews were exiled from Israel, they would remember the day by eating the fruit of Israel. But in those days, the only way to send Israeli fruit far distances was by first drying them. Hence the minhag of eating bukzer (hard, hard, dried carob) on Tu B’Shvat.

Being that the holiday tradition stems from remembering Israel. I thought it would be fun to combine a little Hebrew learning with the fruit. Really I should have stuck with the Shivat HaMinim but 2 of 3 (pomegranate and grapes) are not bad. I added the orange for color variety. You can do any combination of fruit that works for you. If you don’t know the Hebrew word for that fruit, google translate is your friend!

Looking for more Tu B’Shavt projects?
Toilet Paper Roll Trees for Tu B’Shvat
Mixed Media Trees for Tu B’Shvat

Time:
Active: 15 minutes
Drying: 15 minutes+

Age: 4-7

Materials:
Construction Paper
Glue
Scissors

Process:
Cut out the shapes of a bowl and some fruit. Place it on the page to be sure there is room for a flap to open.

Fold a small portion of each fruit and glue that seam down. Under the flap, write the name of the fruit in Hebrew and English. Let kids who know their letters do the writing!

 

Did you do this project? Share your pictures on our facebook page!