DIY: Tin Can Christmas Trees

Last year in Lucy's Kindergarten class I was asked to share a Christmas Craft.
And the idea of decorating a Christmas tree kept coming to mind.  Green paper trees, a bunch of gooey decor that kids would love, and.....recycled tin cans for trunks?!  We threw it all together and made:

The kids really had fun with the craft.

And the little trees works as a cup holder for candy canes, pencils, plastic wear for the Christmas party, etc.  We used ours Christmas Eve night for dinner.

Here's what you do....

• Draw a triangular tree on cardstock.  I found that it worked best to cut the tree from cardstock first, then glue it to green paper and cut again.  This ensured that the gluestick got on all the important angles and edges of the tree.  And the double layer of cardstock/paper made it nice and sturdy to hold up the ornaments the kids threw on.

• Gather and clean tin cans.  I asked all the parents in the class to help with this, donating their old food cans.  Fruit and veggie cans work best (rather than soup or spaghetti sauce) because there's little lingering odor.  Remove the labels and make sure there are no sharp edges where the tops were removed.  Press down any metal pieces and smooth it out.
• Cut pieces of brown paper to fit around the cans and glue it on with a small line of hot glue in the back.

The pieces are ready!
Time to decorate.

Use whatever craft supplies you'd like to make your tree look cheery and festive.
When it's decorated, use a hot glue gun to glue the bottom of the tree to the trunk.
Done!

Now swing by the school Christmas party and share the fun with the kiddos. It's even more exciting if it happens to be pajama day as well.

Before the party, I prepared all the trees and trunks.
Then the kids could concentrate on decorating the trees.   

The kindergarten kids loved:
• Cheap jewels from the craft store
• Jingle bells for the branches (attached with small safety pins.  They were a big hit)
• Glitter glue
• Colored pom poms
• Foamy stickers

When the kids left for P.E. I glued all their trees to the trunks and placed a candy cane in each one.

 And that's a Kinder party wrap.