Make toilet tube trees
You’ll need
- Cardboard tubes
- Paint
- Paint brushes
- A4 card
- Masking tape
- PVA glue
- String
- Wool
- Tissue paper
- Materials for printing, such as corks and popcorn
- Trees in season sheet
Before you begin
- Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Additional help to carry out your risk assessment, including examples.
- Make sure all young people and adults involved in the activity know how to take part safely.
- Make sure you’ll have enough adult helpers. You may need some parents and carers to help if you’re short on helpers.
Planning and setting up this activity
- Ask everyone to collect cardboard tubes at home if they can - you need enough for everyone to have one each.
- You may want to collect fallen tree material (such as leaves) for people to add to their drawings.
- Make sure to protect any clothes and surfaces, as needed.
Running this activity
Talk about trees
- Gather everyone together and ask everyone to think about the trees they’ve seen. They should think about what they look like, what colours they are, and how they change with the seasons.
- Ask everyone if trees always look the same throughout the year. See if anyone can name the four seasons and what happens to trees during each season.
- Make sure everyone understands what happens to (deciduous) trees in each season. We’ve included some pictures and words in the ‘Trees in season’ sheet to help you.
Make a tree
- Give everyone a cardboard tube.
- They should paint it to look like a tree trunk. They could use brown paint, using other paint colours or felt tip pens to add details.
- Next, tape or glue the tree trunk onto a piece of card, leaving plenty of space to add the branches.
- Everyone should decide which season they want to make.
- People should create the branches, leafs and other things (such as blossom) to make the tree look like it’s from their chosen season. For example, they could use paint, crayons, craft leaves, stickers, pom poms, tissue paper, finger paint, or create collage with card.
- To create the leaves, people could draw round their hand on coloured card, then cut out the handprints and stick them to the tube.
- When they’re finished, leave the pictures to dry. Once the pictures are dry, you could display them to show trees through the season.
Reflection
This activity was a chance for everyone to learn more about, and value, the outdoors. This activity showed how deciduous trees change with the seasons, constantly renewing themselves. Other plants and flowers can do this too. Does anyone have a favourite season? What do trees look like in that season? Everyone could make an effort to watch the trees as they chance with the seasons. Does anyone know why trees are important? They’re not just pretty to look at - they clean the air people breathe, and provide a home for animals and insects.
Safety
All activities must be safely managed. You must complete a thorough risk assessment and take appropriate steps to reduce risk. Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Always get approval for the activity, and have suitable supervision and an InTouch process.
- Outdoor activities
You must have permission to use the location. Always check the weather forecast, and inform parents and carers of any change in venue.
- Glue and solvents
Always supervise young people appropriately when they’re using glue and solvent products. Make sure there’s plenty of ventilation. Be aware of any medical conditions that could be affected by glue or solvent use and make adjustments as needed.
- Rubbish and recycling
All items should be clean and suitable for this activity.
You could talk more about different types of trees. The Woodland Trust has a ‘British trees’ app, which may be useful for identifying and finding out about specific trees.
Use brushes or pens to add more detail to the pictures once they’re dry. Think about detail on the bark, birds or insects, and leaves and twigs.
You could swap the cardboard tubes with brown handprints, for a personal touch.
Make it accessible
All Scout activities should be inclusive and accessible.
