Tu B’shvat

Supplies

1. 1 Canvas
2. 1 large paintbrush
3. 2-3 Q-tips
4. Strips of various pink shades
5. Printed tree
6. 1 brown cardstock
7. Light blue, pink and white paint
8. Scissors
9. Pencil or pen
10. Glue stick.

Specialty Item Shopping List

Instructions

1. Paint your entire canvas in blue.
2. Take a printout of the tree and place it on top of the brown cardstock. Trace the tree pushing hardly on the pencil.
3. Now you can see the outline of the tree trunk on your cardstock. Cut it out.
4. Glue the tree trunk to the bottom of the canvas.
5. Dip your Q-tip into the pink paint and make a lot of big dots on the tree and a few on the ground at the bottom of your canvas by dabbing Q-tip on the canvas.
6. Now do the same thing with your white paint but make dots smaller.
7. Take a piece of paper strip and fold it a tiny bit over on one end and then keep folding it over till you have just a small rolled up paper. Do that with all shades of pink and white. Rolls can be different sizes.
8. Put glue on one side of the paper roll and stick it on the tree.
9. Repeat with all other folded papers.
10. You can also add white clouds in the sky with Q-tip and white paint.
11. Your blossoming tree is ready!

Imagine…

Once upon a time, there was a farmer who wanted to grow a tree filled with leaves and fruit. But to accomplish this, the farmer needed to do many steps. First, he planted the seed in the ground, then he watered the seed every day. Slowly, with enough water and sun, the seed became a small sapling, and from a sapling to a little tree and finally a strong large tree with beautiful branches and delicious fruit!

Delving Deeper

What if I told you we are just like trees?

Just like trees, we too can have long beautiful branches and delicious fruit. Our branches are the Mitzvot we do. Just like a tree with lots of branches is a healthy tree, a person with lots of Mitzvot is a shining and strong individual!

As for the fruit: this symbolizes the positive influence we have on others to do Mitzvot! Inspiring someone else to do a Mitzvah helps them grow their own tree the same way a fruit contains seeds from which another tree can be planted.

But the same way the farmer had to work hard and consistently put in effort in order for the tree to grow, the same thing applies when it comes to our Avodas Hashem – the Torah & Mitzvot we do. In order for our tree to grow to be big and strong, we need to put in effort on a regular basis. For example, if we want to become better at saying Bracho’s on food, the way to ingrain that in ourselves is by practicing saying Bracho’s every day. Or if our goal is to become better at the Mitzvah of Ahavas Yisrael, then the way to success is practicing kind words every day at school or at home. It doesn’t become a habit right away, but by working at it day in and day out, slowly that tree is going to grow and become stronger each day.

Growing branches on our tree not only makes us stronger and better, but it also makes the entire world a better place.

Point to Ponder

What are some actions you can do to make your Mitzvah branches grow?