I’ve shared some easy winter tree craft ideas before but I liked the idea of making an easy paper plate winter tree craft and this simple activity fitted the bill perfectly. This craft makes a great companion to our fall tree paper plate craft or is a great winter craft to make on it’s own.
This is a great craft to make with toddlers and preschoolers because it’s so simple, but you could happily make it with older children too who will be able to use cutting out the tree trunk as a way to practice their scissor skills (where as you would need to do that part for toddlers.)
Being a winter craft it’s also a great excuse to talk about the season with your child. Why do we often use blue for winter crafts? Do the trees near your home have leaves right now? When do you think the leaves will comeback? We’ve done a load of seasonal tree crafts using our free tree template too so it’s a good place to look for inspiration if you fancy doing some four seasons tree crafts with your child.
If you like this craft make sure that you bookmark this page or pin an image so you remember to return to it later (as a mum myself I know the hundreds of things I forget about daily!). You’ll also find more easy winter crafts for kids at the end of this post as well as printable instructions for this craft if you want to print it out for some screen free time.
So the first thing you will need for this craft is going to be a paper plate and some coloured paints in blue and white. I used to have a huge selection of coloured paints but over the years my collection has calmed down a lot (possibly due to the fact that there are no craft supply shops near us) and now we manage pretty much with the primary colours and white, plus whatever ‘fancy paints’ my kids might have knocking around (we seem to get quite a few metallic ones!)
Grab a reusable plate (we have one specifically for painting) and pour a little blue and white paint on them. I actually think that part of the fun is mixing up the paints a little to see what shades of each colour you get, although obviously this can make it a bit messier.
The background part of this winter tree craft is finger painted so get your child to dip their finger into the paint and then dab it all over the paper plate, see what different shades of blue you can get on your frosty of snowy tree. When you are painting with kids I can’t recommend enough having something nearby to wipe their hands with – an old damp flannel or similar is great. I normally take my kids to the bathroom to clean their hands properly (and normally down their nails too!) once we’re finished but reducing the chances of any paint getting anywhere on the way is always a good thing. Cover as much of the paper plate with paint as you can.
While the paint is drying cut out a tree trunk shape from brown paper or card. Envelopes and brown packaging paper can be good ones to upcycle for this too. Younger kids will need you to do this for them, or give them a hand, as the branches are a bit tricky.
Once the paint is dry stick your tree trunk on to the paper plate with some glue and your paper plate winter tree craft is done.
What You'll Find on This Page
Paper Plate Winter Tree Craft
Equipment
- Scissors
- Glue
- Reusable plate
Materials
- Blue and white paint
- 1 Paper plate
- Brown paper or card
Instructions
- Put blue the blue and white paint onto your reusable plate so that it's easily accessible.
- Encourage your child to dip their finger into the paint and use this to paint the paper plate until the plate is covered.
- Cut a tree trunk shape from brown paper or card.
- Glue the tree trunk onto the paper plate.
Notes
More Winter Crafts for Kids
We love this easy scrunched paper snowman craft – like building your snowman out of lots of tiny snowball!
This easy winter lantern craft is a simple seasonal version of a classic craft for kids.
Grab our free tree template and try out some of our winter tree painting ideas for kids.
