Picture a Tree--Book Inspired Art

Today we are sharing a wonderful book, Picture a Tree, by Barbara Reid. This book is a fun book that looks at the different ways to picture a tree for example trees look differently in the four seasons. Through its wonderful story and picture it compares spring trees to paint or art class and it compares trees to other things like a tunnel, an ocean and more. It also looks at how trees can be used as homes and as toys (for example pirate ship, or clubhouse). It is a fun book to get you noticing and thinking about trees and nature more. 

How do you picture a tree? We decided to paint some trees. Here is how Hazel was picturing trees this day.

Hazel's first tree was pretty basic, but I was happy to see how her painting could actually look like something and not just a mess of colors. After this tree I asked her what trees look like in the fall. She added a tree to the painting.

She however decided to make it with unusual colors for the leaves. As you can see she had fall color paints, but used blue, pink, yellow and silver. At least I know she is creative.

After painting two trees she wanted to paint her old way--just colors everywhere, but she was practicing mixing colors. So that is our simple way to think about trees. How do you picture a tree?