I've seen these adorable truffula trees all over pinterest, from adorable pictures of peoples' classrooms and photos from blogs.
To celebrate Read Across America, I thought I'd make a few to put outside our library!
It was much easier than I thought it'd be. Here's what you need:
- Pool noodles (I cut them down to make trunks of different lengths)
- Masking tape (I used black and blue)
- tissue paper sheets (the larger, the better)
- floral wire
- floral wire cutters
- scissors
First, I took the masking tape and wrapped it around the pool noodles at a regular interval to make the little stripes you see on the truffula tree trunks.
Then, I followed the directions from this post from Martha Stewart to make the poofs on top of the truffula trees. It was surprisingly easy! For the first tree I made, I used a rounded edge, which made the petals on the poof look round on the ends, but for the others, I cut it into a pointy triangle, so it could look a bit more truffula-ish.One of the steps in making the poofs is to wrap the floral wire around the middle of a stack of tissue paper. I left the ends of the wire very long, so I could use it to punch through the pool noodle and attach the poof to the top. I also only fluffed out the petals into one side, making a 180 degree flower, rather than a 360 degree flower, so I could lay the flowers flat against the wall.
I made six truffula trees of different colors in about an hour (maybe an hour and a half). Easy peasy!
We used our truffula trees to decorate the doorway outside the library. We covered the wall with a bright blue background, and layered on grass, little Seuss-like hills, and clouds to make a cute truffula scene.
What do you do to decorate for Read Across America? I know a lot of teachers decorate their doors. I'd love to see your photos!
