I liked that the gems could be used in many ways, as ice on the ground, arranged in a curving, iced-over stream (I’ve been wanting to make a glass gem river ever since I saw Twodaloo’s beautiful Invitation to Play: Create a Forest), or placed up in the tree. One way to make this more fun with trains is to use the trains to transport the “snow” and “ice” to decorate the tree, like we did for the Halloween carnival trees. To add this to a train layout or small world, you can put the pipe cleaner tree, pom poms, and gems in the scene with your child. If you feel a suggestion for play would be helpful, place a pom pom or two in the tree. Strew the pom poms around the roots of the tree. To present this as a fine motor activity, place one or more pipe cleaner trees in the center of a dish or tray with raised sides to contain the loose parts. White pom poms - Cotton balls would also work.Pipe cleaner trees - Read the illustrated tutorial for making these pipe cleaner trees.These trees are fun to use as a fine motor activity on their own, or to be added to train sets and other small worlds as interactive scenery. Now, soft pom pom snow and hard glass gem ice has landed on their branches. Then we added color for Halloween carnival pom pom trees and fall pom pom trees.

These black trees started out as spooky trees for Halloween. Now that we’re deep into winter, it’s time for another seasonal variation on our pipe cleaner trees. Social, Emotional, and Practical Skills.

Happy halloween scenery