Hopes and Fears Tree

The Hopes and Fears Tree is colorful craft to help kids understand that no matter what they’re worried about, they can still achieve their hopes and dreams.

Supplies Needed

• Poster board or large sheet of paper
• Markers, pens or pencils
• Construction Paper (Green, brown and a variety of other colors)
• Scissors
• Glue

Making a Hopes and Fears Tree

• Cut a rough oval to serve as the dirt for your tree.
• Make a tree with branches out of the green construction paper.
• Pick a color, or colors, of construction paper to represent works. Cut out oval “worm shaped” pieces of construction paper. Don’t worry too much about the form of these.
• Have the children write things that the worry about on the worms and glue those on the dirt around the bottom of the tree.
• Cut out leaves from a variety of colors.
• Have the child write a hope or dream that they have and glue those to the branches on the tree.
• As your pasting their hopes and dreams on the tree, remind them that our fears and worries that we overcome can serve as fertilizers out of which our hopes and dreams can grow.
• Share your own personal experiences of where this has been true.
• Encourage the child to hang their Hopes and Fears Tree in their room to remember that our anxieties and fears don’t have to stand in the way of accomplishing our hopes and dreams.

SOURCE OF IDEA: We originally found this idea in the article The New Community College Try from the New York Times and adapted it for working with kids.

For more awesome resources for learning about and dealing with emotions, please visit our Hope 4 Hurting Kids Emotions Help Center.