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Volunteering at Scouts is changing to help us reach more young people

Volunteering is changing to help us reach more young people

Volunteering is changing at Scouts. Read more

Discover what this means

Make toilet tube trees

Build your love for the outdoors and get crafting to learn how trees change their leaves throughout the year.
Plan a session with this activity

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You’ll need

  • Cardboard tubes
  • Paint
  • Paint brushes
  • A4 card
  • Masking tape
  • PVA glue
  • String
  • Wool
  • Tissue paper
  • Materials for printing, such as corks and popcorn
  • Trees in season sheet
Trees in season
PDF – 122.7KB
Download Trees in season

Before you begin

  • Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Additional help to carry out your risk assessment, including examples.
  • Make sure all young people and adults involved in the activity know how to take part safely.
  • Make sure you’ll have enough adult helpers. You may need some parents and carers to help if you’re short on helpers.

Planning this activity

  • Ask everyone to collect cardboard tubes at home if they can - you need enough for everyone to have one each.
  • You may want to collect fallen tree material (such as leaves) for people to add to their drawings.

Talk about trees

  1. Ask everyone to think about the trees they’ve seen, including what they look like, what colours they are, and how they change with the seasons. 
  2. Ask everyone if trees always look the same. Ask about what different colours do trees have, when do trees change colour, if anyone name the four seasons and what happens to trees during each season.
  3. Make sure everyone understands what happens to (deciduous) trees in each season. We’ve included some pictures and words in the ‘Trees in season’ sheet, to help you explain.

Make a tree

  1. Ask everyone to get into groups of around four people, with an adult or young leader in each group.
  2. Make sure to protect any clothes and surfaces, as needed.
  3. Give everyone a cardboard tube.
  4. They should paint it to look like a tree trunk – they could use brown paint, with white and black highlights and details.
  5. Next, tape or glue the tree trunk onto a piece of card, leaving plenty of space to add the branches.
  6. Everyone should decide which season they want to make. One person in each group could create each of the four seasons.
  7. People should complete their tree, so it looks like the season they’re making. They could use a range of paints and materials to paint, finger paint, or collage branches. They could use other things for their season, such as leaves, blossom, or flowers). 
  8. When they’re finished, people should leave their pictures to dry.
  9. Once the pictures are dry, you could display them to show trees through the season.

Reflection

This activity was a chance for everyone to learn more about, and value, the outdoors. This activity showed how deciduous trees change with the seasons, constantly renewing themselves. Other plants and flowers can do this too. Does anyone have a favourite season? What do trees look like in that season? Everyone could make an effort to watch the trees as they chance with the seasons. Does anyone know why trees are important? They’re not just pretty to look at - they clean the air people breathe, and provide a home for animals and insects.

Safety

All activities must be safely managed. You must complete a thorough risk assessment and take appropriate steps to reduce risk. Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Always get approval for the activity, and have suitable supervision and an InTouch process.

Outdoor activities

You must have permission to use the location. Always check the weather forecast, and inform parents and carers of any change in venue.

Glue and solvents

Always supervise young people appropriately when they’re using glue and solvent products. Make sure there’s plenty of ventilation. Be aware of any medical conditions that could be affected by glue or solvent use and make adjustments as needed.

Rubbish and recycling

All items should be clean and suitable for this activity.

You could talk more about different types of trees. The Woodland Trust has a ‘British trees’ app, which may be useful for identifying and finding out about specific trees.

Use brushes or pens to add more detail to the pictures once they’re dry. Think about detail on the bark, birds or insects, and leaves and twigs.

You could swap the cardboard tubes with brown handprints, for a personal touch.

Make it accessible

All Scout activities should be inclusive and accessible.

Gardener Activity Badge
Beavers Creative Activity Badge

Have a look for tree planting programmes - there are often many for young people to get involved with. You could even work towards your Community Impact Staged Activity Badge, or requirement two of the My World Challenge Award, by planting trees and looking after a patch of land. Why not see if there are any local nature clubs or conservation workers who’d like to come and help with this activity?