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Palm Trees
(part of Discovering Dinosaurs Unit)


six foot palm tree made with carpet tubing
Made with carpet tubing		 palm tree made with newspaper
Made with newspaper


Making these palm trees help change your home into a new habitat that is ready to take your children on an adventure.


How to Make Palm Trees

Palm trees made with newspaper:

Materials:
newspaper
masking tape
scissors
paint
  1. Taking at least 3 sheets of newspaper and place these on top of each other then roll into a tube shape.
  2. Cut 4 – 5" strips down from the top of the roll about an inch apart.
  3. Gently loosen your grip on the roll and pull the newspaper up from the inside of the roll.  Keep pulling until you reach your desired look.
  4. Tape the roll so it won't come undone.
  5. You can paint the roll on top green and the lower area brown.  This stiffens the paper and helps it stand straight.
steps to create newspaper palm tree

Palm trees made with carpet tubing:

Materials:
carpet tubes
green construction paper 18"x12"
wire hangers
raffia
glue
floral foam
  1. A carpet company usually has empty carpet rolls available at no charge.
  2. Since they are 12' long, you'll want to cut them in half.
  3. You can use a bucket filled with bricks or sand or you can secure the tubes to something so they stand up like a swing, post, fence…
  4. To make the top leaves, glue two pieces of green construction paper together long ways and let them dry.  You'll want 5 large leaves for the top (which means glue 10 groups of two together) and 3-4 leaves on the base.
  5. While the glue is drying, straighten the wire hangers.  You'll need a full one for the large top leaves and ½ for the leaves at the base.
  6. When the leaves are dry, cut slits in them approximately 1-3" towards the center.  The easiest way is to fold two leaves in half together then trim off the edges so that it has a rounded shape then make the slits at various widths along the edge. 
  7. Now you are ready to assemble the leaves.   It goes fast and the results look great.
  8. Take two of the larger leaves and place one to the side for the moment, we'll call it leaf "A".  Tape one wire to the center of the other leaf "B".  Spread glue on leaf "B" then match up leaf "A" and press the two together.
  9. For the leaves at the base, you'll do the same thing but using only a single sheet of green construction paper and the wire cut in half.
  10. Gluing the leaves worked better then taping them when they were outside in the wind.  Putting two layers of construction paper gave leaves the stiffness and body that looked real.  One layer was too flimsy. 
  11. Just place the large leaves into the top of the tube and arrange them to hang around in all directions.  Placing pieces of raffia to hang down from the top gives it an authentic look. If it is windy, a block of florist foam (Oasis) stuck inside the top of the tube to secure the large leaves worked well.
  12. Placing the small leaves at the base hides the bucket and makes a nice grouping.

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Set-up Activity


Materials:
palm trees
sound effects for a jungle (optional)

To create your habitat from long ago, you'll set out the palm trees and the volcano. If you have sound effects for a jungle or volcanoes erupting, set them out to play. Set the palm trees up where they will be seen by your children. The palm trees can be positioned together like a forest or individually by all of the activities. Using the props that your child has helped make will add to the excitement. Children take great pride in their creations.

September 12, 2008

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