Jesse Tree Craft Kit Tutorial

* Please scroll down for a detailed tutorial. *

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ADDITIONAL TEACHING RESOURCES

HOW TO USE THE CARDS

As all Orthodox Pebbles material, the cards are very versatile; you can use them in different ways. Some examples are:

• Flashcards
• Memory Game: The cards are spread out facing down. Each player picks up a pair of cards and flips it over. If the pair matches, the player has to roughly discuss the story that the cards refer to (the keywords on the cards facilitate this discussion). If the other players feel the discussion was adequate, the player gets to keep the pair; otherwise the pair is returned to its original spot and the next player takes a turn. The game ends when there are no cards remaining. The winner is the player who holds the largest number of pairs.
• Scavenger hunt: Hide the description cards, then give the image cards to the children. For each image card, they should search to find its pair, then briefly discuss the story and symbol.

You can also create your own game variation.

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CRAFTING INSTRUCTIONS

You will need:

• Scissors
• Glue stick
• Double-sided tape is optional but very handy
• Tissue paper: Green and other color(s) of your choice

Step 1

Cut out all the template pieces. Before cutting out the tree shapes, fold the tree shape pages in half on the marked line. Cut the tree shapes on the lines while folded.

Step 2

Fold the cut-out tree shapes the other way. Glue one half of one tree shape onto one half of another tree shape back-to-back. Continue in the same way until you have a 3-D tree. The shapes won’t match 100%. After all the pieces are glued in place, trim the branches all around wherever there is some white paper protruding.

Step 3

Fold the six rectangle tabs in half. Glue each tab onto the marked area on the bottom of the tree. The dark brown side goes on the tree and the beige side hangs free. Tape or glue the tree on its base following the marked lines.

Step 4

Tape the Theotokos shape on top of one side of the tree. Bring the top branches to the front of the shape. Tape the label and angels on the back of the Theotokos shape. If you wish, you can curl the label’s corners by rolling them around a pencil. Tape the prefiguration circles and, if you wish, also their labels all around the tree.

Step 5

Cut strips out of the green tissue paper. They should be large enough to fit the leaf templates. Fold them over a few times and then cut out many leaves from each folded strip at once. Cut out squares out of the colored tissue paper.

Step 6

Cut two slits on the Jesse figure following the marked lines. Position the Jesse figure in place sliding the tree trunk into the slits. Bring the bottom branches over in front of the Jesse figure to keep it in place.

Step 7

Tape as many leaves as you wish all around the tree. It looks nice if the small leaves are placed on top of the larger ones. Crumple the colored tissue paper into balls and tape as many balls as desired all around the tree. READY!