Seasons of a Tree Artwork

This is a craft I found on pinterest that we did five years ago during our first year of homeschooling (we actually did it TODAY, October 3rd!).   It was simple and fun and my son loved it.   I did it with him and enjoyed it too.

We did two versions, as you can see above...one with green leaves and another with fall colors.   In central Texas, where we lived at the time, the leaves had not yet changed, so it made sense to start with the green leaves and then do a version that showed how they would change...as October folded into November and the leaves changed from green to orange I got to ask my son which of the trees on the fridge the leaves were looking more like now.   (You could also do a spring version with shades of pink blossoms).  


SUPPLIES NEEDED
Paper (I suggest cardstock or painting paper)
Compass or round bowl or lid
Pencil and eraser
Q-tips
Paint (various shades)*
Paint pallet (can be plastic or just a paper plate...or use paper cups)

*For the green tree you really only need one shade of darker green, and yellow to mix in to get various other shades.   For the fall colors, red and yellow, mixed to get various shades of orange, will do.  You will also need brown for the trunk.
 

DIRECTIONS
1.  On a piece of paper trace a round circle using a lid (or draw one using a compass) in pencil.

2.   Mix colors to make various shades of paint (shades of green for a green tree, or shades of red, orange and yellow for a fall tree), and brown for the trunk.  Since yellow and blue make green, and red and yellow make orange, you can try different quantities of these to learn about colors while you're mixing.   For brown, if you don't have that color pre-mixed, yellow, red and a small amount of black mixed can make brown.

3.  Draw a brown trunk with Q-tips (or paint brush)...you can draw branches into the circle or just a straight line up to the circle.

4.  With Q-tip, make dots in different colors inside the circle.   Use a different Q-tip for each color.

5.  Let dry, then erase circle (I didn't get pics of our tree after doing this). 

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