A few weeks ago I was walking around the neighborhood with my husband when I spotted this wonderful dead tree sitting on the curb — it still had the roots!!  “Honey, pick up that tree for me.”  My husband grimaced.  He knew all too well – another art project!

Trees are one of my favorite art forms!  Here is how I took a dead tree and had the children transform it into a Fairy Tree.  (It was a part of my recycling unit – we recycled a dead tree!! LOL!)
nature-doll-house
I put our Fairy Tree into our Living Dollhouse.  It is so sweet. . .

nature-doll-house-1
The roots made a wonderful place for the fairies to set-up their home!

HOW TO MAKE THE FAIRY TREE:

nature-doll-house-3
First, I put out three or four colors of paint and let the children paint the tree.  We let some of the wood remain bare.

nature-doll-house-4
I love the gentle strokes of color.

nature-doll-house-5

nature-doll-house-6
nature-doll-house-7
Second, I gave the children squares of tissue paper and tracers to cut out leaves.
Attach the leaves with a touch of a glue stick and pinch it to a limb.
nature-doll-house-8

nature-doll-house-9
Let the magic begin!