Tissue Paper Forsythia Bush

Nothing is making us happier than the fact that spring has officially arrived here in our part of New England. One of my favorite parts of early spring is seeing the bright yellow flowers of the forsythia bushes. I've pointed them out so often as we drive around town now the boys are eager to spot them too.

Unfortunately, we don't have a forsythia bush in our own yard so we decided to create our own tissue paper forsythia bushes.

Materials: 
Yellow tissue paper
Brown Pipe cleaners
Modeling Clay

Prep: 

1. Cut the tissue paper into small squares (about the size of a nickel.) 

2. Cut the pipe cleaners in half. 

3. Make a small ball about the size of a ping pong ball of out a portion of the modeling clay. 

The Project:

To start, have kiddos put the pipe cleaners into the ball of modeling clay so that they stick straight up. Usually about 4 to 6 pipe cleaner pieces look best. The may need to pinch the clay around the top of the ball. 

Next, have kiddos take pieces of the tissue paper and gently push them onto the pieces of pipe cleaner. As they put them on to the pipe cleaner they should gently space them out on the pipe cleaners. 

It's up to each kid creator how many pieces of tissue paper they want to spread out across each pipe cleaner, although at least three or four look best. Once they have the amount of tissue paper they want on each pipe cleaner they can bend and twist the pipe cleaners to look more like branches. 

The boys made several little tissue paper forsythia bushes in only about half an hour. We love having them decorate our kitchen hutch. And maybe someday, we'll get our own forsythia bush for the yard! 

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