Who knew? Trees get to celebrate new years too! The Jewish holiday of Tu B’Shevat, which falls on February 9th this year, is all about honoring trees. Travis helped mark the occasion with this craft from Highlights magazine.

First we needed a base. I challenged Travis to think of how he might arrange craft sticks to make a sturdy foundation for our tree.

A double-layer of craft sticks proved best, and because he didn’t want to wait for craft glue to dry, I made quick work of it with a hot glue gun.

For the trunk of the tree, twist together brown pipe cleaners. We had some that were sparkly, as well as varying shades of brown and tan, which gave the trunk a pretty, mottled look. Travis got the hang of twisting after I demonstrated!

Spread out the tops and bottoms to be the branches and roots. I hot glued this to our base.

For the leaves, Travis helped cut shapes from green cardstock (great scissor practice). These were then glued onto the branches, along with little green “olive” pompoms.

All in all, this was a cute craft. Travis enjoyed olives and oranges (two fruits from trees!) as a snack to finish our celebration of the holiday.