Free Materials For Teachers

Image©2010 ABS Holiday Tree Construction In Classroom Suite
Trimming The Tree In Classroom Suite
For the easiest tree decorating experience of your life, try the Holiday Tree activity. I’ve created twenty-one beautiful ornaments to put on your virtual tree. It only takes four steps at most to complete a tree, and you don’t even need a step stool! Best of all, the lights always work on the first try.

For 2012, I’ve added Clicker 5® and HyperStudio 5® versions to go with the original IntelliTools Classroom Suite®, PowerPoint®, PDF, and Annie’s Books Online versions.

Printable and PowerPoint Holiday Trees
The PowerPoint® and PDF versions of Holiday Tree are non-linear activities. There are three choices in each of the first three steps to put shiny balls, fancy ornaments, and a topper decoration in place. Then clicking the lights button completes the tree.

Text in these versions suggests what choices a student has at each step. No choice is incorrect, because the activity can generate 27 different decorated trees. Students will enjoy repeating this one!

Holiday Tree Online Book
The Annie’s Books Online version is also an errorless, non-linear construction activity, with text guiding students through the process. Besides making the 27 trees, this version has some fun sound effects and ends with snow falling on the lighted tree.

Be sure to take a look at Holiday Tree online! It’s a good way to preview the activity. Link is at the foot of this page.

Holiday Tree In Classroom Suite
The IntelliTools Classroom Suite® version of Holiday Tree is a little different in structure. Students choose ornaments directly to create original decorated trees.

Toolbars offer eight shiny balls, nine fancy ornaments, and three choices for topper. Sorry, no partridge and no pears 🙂 Students can insert these in any order and quantity, and move them into any part of the tree.

There is an original overlay for students using IntelliKeys®, and a Dynavox® package version of the overlay to run the activity from Dynavox AAC devices. See the Special Needs Access section on the System Reqs page for information on controlling the Classroom Suite version from PRC devices.

Once they complete a tree, IntelliMation® supplies the twinkly tree lights and a soundtrack. Students can print their creations or save the completed activity for future printing. A final option is to turn the picture into a holiday card by typing into To and From text boxes.

Image©2010 ABS Completed Holiday Tree standing in snow.
Completed Holiday Tree

I adapted the structure of this version from the Writing In Science template that ships with Classroom Suite. It’s a good example of using the machinery of one activity to build a new one in an entirely different part of the curriculum.

Holiday Tree In Clicker 5
Decorating the tree in Clicker 5 makes use of separate pop-up grids for the toppers and other ornaments. Students click in the many blank cells on the tree and choose ornaments to insert.Tip: Adjust the grid shape closer to square if cells are hanging off the tree.

Image©2012 ABS Holiday Tree Decoration In Clicker 5
Trimming The Tree In Clicker 5
The pop-up grids show an old-fashioned wooden box with the ornaments kept in place with dividers. Since the entire array of ornaments is available from each cell, it’s possible to duplicate ornaments if you like. It’s easy to plan a pretty arrangement!

When all the ornaments have been added, it’s time to click the Add Lights button, instantly draping white lights around the tree. Click Add Magic to slip in a lovely night snow scene. Finally click Play to activate twinkling lights, hear O Tannebaum, and see snow falling.

Be sure to investigate how I got all those things happening at once! The secret is quite a few layered cells with no background. The snow and lights are animated gif images that play when Speak text in cell is checked.

Image©2012 ABS Decorating The Tree In HyperStudio 5.
Trimming The Tree In HyperStudio 5

Holiday Tree In HypeStudio 5
The ornaments in the HyperStudio 5 version are draggable, giving students great freedom to customize their trees. By duplicating some ornaments and even using image effects, every Holiday Tree can be an original masterpiece!

Once the ornaments are in place, clicking the Holiday Magic button hides unused ornaments and their trays, turns on the lights, and starts the snow falling. Like other versions, students have a chance to turn their stack into a holiday card.

Holiday Tree Puzzles
Click the button on the cover page to read the Teacher Tips in the Classroom Suite version of Holiday Tree. Besides printing tips, you’ll find out how to make a puzzle in either of two Classroom Suite templates from a finished tree picture.

I did one for you, copying a tree picture and pasting it into the 6 Piece Puzzle Template, and it’s included in the Classroom Suite zip file you download for this activity. You could use the same trick with the Printed Puzzle Maker template.

If you are using the Online, PDF, or PowerPoint versions, you can still make a puzzle using a print-out of a finished tree and a printer or a copier. Download Printed Puzzle Patterns here.

Online Holiday Tree Puzzle
I’ve also done one online puzzle with a Holiday Tree picture. There’s a Preview button for a sneak peek. Take a look at it, and keep this option in mind for student art work. If you have a graphics editing application, try taking a screen shot of a finished tree, crop it, resize to 400 x 300, and you’re ready to turn it into an instant online puzzle!

More Holiday Activities
When you finish trimming this virtual tree, you might also enjoy making a virtual wreath.
Take a break and play some Holiday Games . A win in this kind of lotto plays a happy rendition of Jingle Bells. And if there is any time left before Santa comes knocking, try wrapping some virtual gifts. Holiday Games is new for 2012, while the other two activities were originally posted for the 2008 and 2009 holidays.

Bonus: Holiday Tree Clip Art!
The Holiday Tree Clip Art Collection includes the tree on a white background, the tree with the dark background and snow, and all 21 ornaments. Print these to decorate the trees off-computer.

Also print out the ornaments separately to use for matching and remember games. There are nine different shiny balls to use for color matching games, while the fancy ornaments bring in shape matching skills.

Applications needed: Classroom Suite, Clicker 5, HyperStudio 5, Acrobat Reader, PowerPoint, Web Browser.
Subject areas: Holiday, Life Skills, Cause and Effect.
Level: K-Grade 3.


Online Links-Activities

Books

Holiday Tree link: holidayTree/index.html Holiday Tree activity to read online. For details on using Annie’s Books Online, click here.

Desktop version of Holiday Tree link: holidayTreeDesktop.zip Holiday Tree activity to read from the desktop using a web browser. For details on using Annie’s Books Online, click here.

Puzzles

Holiday Tree Puzzle link: CLICK HERE. decoratedTree online puzzle. Image is one of the finished decorated trees from the Holiday Tree activity set. For details on using Annie’s Puzzles Online, click here.


Downloads-Activities

Printable Activities

HolidayTree.pdf (26.5 MB) Holiday Tree activity to print or read onscreen. No movies. Acrobat Reader.


Classroom Suite

HolidayTreeSuite.zip (7.0 MB) Holiday Tree interactive activity and Holiday Tree 6 piece puzzle in Classroom Suite v.3 or later. Custom IntelliKeys overlay is attached. See the Special Needs Access section on the System Reqs page for information on controlling the Classroom Suite version from PRC devices.

HolidayTreeDynavox.zip (456 KB) Holiday Tree activity overlays saved as a Dynavox package file.


Clicker 5

HolidayTree2012.clkt.zip (2.6 MB) Holiday Tree activity in Clicker 5.


HyperStudio 5

HolidayTree.stack.zip (5.5 MB) Holiday Tree activity in HyperStudio 5. Refer to the HyperStudio is Back! page for information about downloading players to run this activity.


PowerPoint

HolidayTreePPT.zip (35.3 MB) Holiday Tree interactive activity saved as a .ppt file. PowerPoint 2003 or later.

Downloads-Resources

HolidayTreeClipArt.zip (2.0 MB) Holiday Tree clip art including tree backgrounds and all the ornaments. To preview the collection, click here.

December 1st, 2012 at 1:17 pm
One Response to “Holiday Tree 2012”

  1. 1
    Karen Lewis Says:

    Annie –
    Just to let you know that we appreciate all of these activities. The quality is outstanding, and our teachers and students love them. We use the printed, Classroom Suite, and PowerPoint versions.
    Thank you!

 

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