| Ask for help rolling a sheet of newspaper into a cylinder about as wide inside as your little finger. Tape it
so that it stays together--about 1/2" or so from the end that you want as the bottom. At the top end, have a grownup cut about five slits that go about halfway down the cylinder. By pushing and turning gently with your little finger inside the bottom of the cylinder, you'll see the tree
begin to sprout.
Once you've got it started, you may find it easier to pull the tree up from the top. The "branches" will come out in a corkscrew pattern, and you can bend them down any way you think looks good. To make the tree stand, push the bottom into a base made of clay. Or have your helper make four cuts (like tabs) at the bottom on opposite sides, ending just before the tape line. Bend the tabs outward and tape them to the floor or tabletop.
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 | While this newspaper tree grows instantly, it seems to young children as if their own growing takes forever. Often it's only by helping them look back at where they have been, that they can see they are growing at all. You can help your child feel proud by talking about all the "inside growing" he or she has done. That kind of growing is about learning to wait, learning to keep on trying, being able to talk about their feelings and expressing their feelings in constructive ways. What important growing that is! Often the most important growing is the kind that takes the longest!
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