Creative Christmas Trees for the Classroom

A collection of creative Christmas tree ideas; trees made out of books, boxes, and more!  Use unconventional materials to create a STEM or maker Christmas tree for the classroom, library, art room, technology lab, makerspace or school

Image of creative classroom trees made from unconventional materials.

Challenge students to create trees from a variety of materials or work together to make one creative classroom tree.  Trees from unconventional materials make for an engaging holiday STEM challenge too!

Click the pictures to see the original post and to learn more.

Creativity Under Constraint

Creativity is best nurtured when there are constraints of some sort.  We know this as teachers since so much of our job is thinking of creative solutions with less – less time, less money, less material.  Teachers are some of the most creative people I know because they are constantly thinking of new ways to reach students.

Modern research seems to support this idea as well. Scarcity of resources, and/or time often lead to more innovative approaches to problem solving.  With less you have to be creative to solve the problem.

Rather than tell students “make something” when you tell them to “make a tree,” you have limited the finished project to a specific shape (triangle) and a somewhat specific color and expectation.  This helps students focus on the task while also forcing students to make the best of what they have.  

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Collaboration Christmas Trees

Many of the trees pictures are made collaboratively.  Students either work together to construct the tree or each make a piece that will be added to the tree to create the overall shape.  These trees give students the creatively to personalize their specific piece or allow students to choose and display a favorite book.

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Do you have a creative Christmas tree in your classroom?  Are students involved in the construction and decorating?  I recommend having students make binary code ornaments to decorate tree too. Learn how here and be sure to tag me in any social media posts of your creations!

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