Pick a Pine Tree by Patricia Toht is an adorable picture book perfect for the elementary classroom during the Christmas season. It is a story about a family visiting a Christmas tree lot and going through the sequence of picking the just-right tree, taking it home, and decorating it uniquely with loved ones and friends. The illustrations by Jarvis strike a whimsical wintry touch with lots of heartwarming Christmas scenes. Pick a Pine Tree is a sweet story that promotes community, joy, and the tradition of decorating a Christmas tree.
Pick a Pine Tree Publisher’s Synopsis:
Part of the magic of the Christmas season stems from the traditions that families and friends take part in every year: hanging up stockings; putting lights in the windows; and, one of the most important of all, picking out and taking home the Christmas tree. With style and warmth, debut author Patricia Toht and Jarvis, the author-illustrator of Alan’s Big, Scary Teeth, evoke all the rituals of decorating the tree — digging out boxes jam-packed with ornaments and tree trimmings, stringing tinsel, and, at long last, turning on those twinkling lights. Joyously drawn and rhythmically written, this celebration of family, friends, and the holiday season is as merry as the tradition it depicts.
Utilize this delightful story this December with the following wide array of fun, yet educational activities that promote writing, literacy, creativity, and collaboration.
Classroom Christmas Tree & Hand-Made Ornaments
Pick a Pine Tree is a wonderful book to read aloud to excite and motivate your students when it comes to putting up their own classroom Christmas tree. This book evokes enthusiasm and the notion of choosing heartwarming ornaments and decor to make your tree unique. This book also allows us to see that it’s the process of decorating in which the magic of Christmas lies, not just in the finished product and it’s the fun in teamwork to bring a pine tree to life. So what better after-reading activity than to have students decorate your classroom Christmas tree using hand-made ornaments?
Set up ornament and Christmas tree decor stations. At one station, students can glue pom-poms onto pinecones to create mini Christmas tree ornaments. Students can create pip cleaner candy cane ornaments with red and white beads and a simple pip cleaner. Another hand-made craft could be making salt dough ornaments and painting them. Students can create mini Christmas tree wreaths by cutting out the center of a small paper plate and painting or coloring the rest. Simple paper chains and stringing popcorn are fun tree decor items as well! There are a wide variety of fun ornaments students can create. Then, as a classroom community, decorate your tree together. That same community collaboration is evident in Pick a Pine Tree. You’ll be bringing the book to life!
Figurative Language
Pick a Pine Tree is ripe with figurative language. Here are some examples below:
- Alliteration – baubles, buttons…tiny trains
- Metaphor –Tinsel’s draped–-a silver waterfall.
- Onomatopoeia – A train that chugs.
- Personification – Your tree will sit, tall and grand, snug and sturdy in its stand.
- Personification – Give your thirsty tree a drink!
After reviewing the various types of figurative language, work together with students to identify and sort the figurative language present in the book. Next, have students create Christmas figurative language examples of their own that they can incorporate in their writing.
For more figurative language practice, grab our Interactive Figurative Language Activities here:
Adjectives/Vocabulary
Use Pick a Pine Tree to practice adjectives and as mentor text to teach students how to incorporate them into their everyday writing. Reread the book as a class and list all the adjectives students encounter. Have your class also identify what the adjectives are describing. Reread the book to the class without the adjectives listed so they can see the vast difference adjectives make in writing. Pick a Pine Tree also has wonderful vocabulary, such as baubles, tinsel, and festoon. Create a special Christmas Word Wall to look up the definitions of these words. Then, students can practice incorporating these new words into their everyday writing.
Create a Tree Craft and Descriptive Writing/Narrative Poetry Resource
Speaking of adjectives, this book companion craftivity helps students practice descriptive writing and narrative poetry. Recreate the main events of the book in your classroom. In this resource, students have over 20 unique Christmas trees to choose from. After choosing a Christmas tree, they use the accompanied accessories to decorate their tree uniquely. Next, they use the adjective list to describe their individual trees in a descriptive paragraph.
This resource also contains information on the elements of a narrative poem and how to write one. With its rhyming words, rhythm, and story all about decorating a Christmas tree, this picture book technically is a narrative poem. Students can choose to write a narrative poem about their distinctive tree as well.
Grab this adorable book companion craftivity here!
How to Decorate a Christmas Tree FREEBIE
Pick a Pine Tree has some elements of procedural, or how-to writing, in it. From the sequence of picking a tree out on the lot to placing it in its stand, from getting the ornament boxes out to decorating the tree with loved ones, this book tells readers the process of decorating a Christmas tree.
Have students write their step-by-step procedure of how they decorate their family Christmas tree from start to finish in this writing freebie.
Conclusion
Pick a Pine Tree is more than a holiday story or adorable picture book. It’s an opportunity to engage students in a variety of educational activities that promote creativity, collaboration, literacy, and writing. Incorporate this book and activities into your December lesson plans, and you and your students will have a tree-mendous time learning.