COLUMNIST: JOANNE EVANS
Joanne Evans has been running her garden design business and Gardening4Kids (Gardening School) from Aberdeenshire since 2012. She is passionate about teaching children about the joys of gardening and where their food comes from. She knows all about encouraging children outdoors as she is a gardening tutor and Forest School leader.
In her regular column, Joanne gives simple, seasonal activities which you can do outdoors with your kids.
As Christmas approaches it is time to get crafty with the kids using natural resources which you can gather from the garden or from lovely, long, winter walks.
What you will need:
What to do:
1. With a ruler, help your child to mark 4 x 12cm sections on the twigs with the pencil.
2. Depending on their age, let or help your children, cut twigs at the marks with secateurs to give 5 twigs of the same length.
3. Cross 2 of the twig pieces at a point 2cm down from their tops. Angle the pieces so they look like the top of a pyramid.
4. Wrap a 12cm piece of twine or a rubber band around the intersection point to the twigs, circling both horizontally and vertically at least once. Do not worry if the twigs are still a little loose, this will be reinforced later.
5. Place the 3rd twig horizontally across the first two, about 2cm down from the intersection of the first two twigs and secure at both ends with 12cm piece of twine or a rubber band.
6. Place the 4th twig diagonally on the rest of the twigs, starting about 2cm from the left side of the horizontal twig and ending about 2cm up from the bottom right twig. Wrap a 12cm section of twine or a rubber band around the new intersections in the same manner as you have been doing.
7. Place the 5th twig diagonally on the rest of the twigs, starting about 2cm from the right side of the horizontal twig and ending about 2cm up from the bottom left twig. Wrap 12cm pieces of twine or a rubber band around the new intersections.
8. Wrap more twine around any loose intersections, if needed.
9. Finally, loop a piece of ribbon through the top intersection of the star and make a tie at the top of the ribbon.
What you will need:
What to do:
1. Glue the base of five pine cones together to form a star shape. Cut two circles of card and glue in the centre of the star on each side.
2. Wrap raffia around the star, between the cones. Leave the long lengths to make a loop, then tie at the top in a bow.
3. Glue the sprigs of fir onto the pine cones. Then glue the holly sprig onto the cardboard in the centre.
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