Kandinsky Christmas Tree Art for Kids

Your art table will feel instantly more festive with Kandinsky Christmas tree art packed with circles, color, and kid-made charm. Grab paper, pastels, and paint for a joyful project that works for many ages.

Collage with three panels showing a child in glasses holding a finished triangular tree filled with colorful concentric circles in front of a decorated Christmas tree, a close-up of hands painting over circular pastel designs on a triangle with watercolor, and a group of completed green-painted triangle trees with circular patterns laid out on a green table as part of a Kandinsky Christmas tree art project.

Kandinsky Christmas tree art for kids

Wassily Kandinsky’s art is iconic, and chances are high that you have seen some of his art!

One of the pieces he is most known for features concentric circles, and today we’re making Christmas trees inspired by the artist.

It’s important to note that I had a poster of one of his art pieces hanging in my college dorm long before he was as mainstream as he is now. My love for his art runs deep!

Learning about famous artists is an exciting part of the preschool curriculum, and with Kandinsky, the amount of artist-inspired art is limitless.

🎄 Check out our ultimate list of Christmas sensory activities for kids!

Hand holding a finished triangular paper tree against a green table, showing large and small concentric circles in orange, blue, teal, yellow, pink, and other pastel colors drawn across the entire white surface while additional art supplies and children are slightly blurred in the background.

The artist behind Kandinsky Christmas tree art

Wassily Kandinsky was a Russian painter who lived in the late 1800s and early 1900s and is often called one of the first abstract artists.

He loved using strong lines, bright colors, and simple shapes (especially circles!) to show music, movement, and emotions in his paintings.

Many of his most famous pieces are filled with rings of color that stack inside each other, which is the inspiration for our Kandinsky Christmas tree art project.

When kids cover their paper trees in colorful circles, they’re exploring the same kind of playful, abstract style that made Kandinsky’s artwork so unique and memorable.

🎄 There’s more Christmas art where this came from:

Overhead view of several children in green-and-white striped shirts sitting around a green table, each working on triangular paper trees filled with circular pastel designs, with watercolor palettes, jars of water, and boxes of oil pastels spread across the table during a Kandinsky Christmas tree art activity.

Materials

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White paper
Brown paper or grocery bag (optional)
Scissors
Oil pastels or crayons
Watercolors
Paintbrushes
Cups or trays of water
Glue

Split image showing on the left a child in green-and-white stripes sitting beside a decorated Christmas tree while working on a triangle paper, and on the right a close-up of a child’s hand gripping a yellow oil pastel to draw colorful concentric circles on the tip of a white triangular tree on a green table.

How to make Kandinsky Christmas tree art

Cut out a large triangle or any simple Christmas tree shape from white paper.
Using oil pastels, invite kids to draw concentric circles all over the tree. I model it by making a dot, several rings around it, and then repeating elsewhere on the tree.
Invite kids to paint over the entire page with watercolors. Watch as the oil pastel circles resist the paint and stay bright and bold while the background fills with color.
Let the artwork dry completely, then hang your forest of trees together for a truly tree-rific classroom or hallway display

💡 Teacher Tip: Encourage kids to press hard with the oil pastels so the color is thick and waxy.

Several children in matching green-and-white striped pajamas sit around a green table covered with watercolor palettes, jars of water, and boxes of oil pastels, while one child near the center looks toward another child and laughs as they both draw circular designs on white triangle papers for a Kandinsky Christmas tree art activity.

Math hiding inside concentric circle Kandsiny-inspired trees

There is so much math happening inside these colorful trees!

Kids are constantly comparing sizes as they draw one circle inside another: Which one is bigger? Which one is smaller? How many circles fit inside this space? That’s early measurement and spatial reasoning all rolled into one.

When children decide how far apart to draw each ring, they’re exploring distance and space which are two big ideas in geometry. They might also notice that some rings are close together and others are far apart.

As they fill the triangle with circles, kids are experimenting with 2D shapes inside other 2D shapes and seeing how they fit, touch, and sometimes overlap, perfect for gentle conversations about geometry, space, and how shapes can live together on the same piece of paper.

Close-up of a white triangular paper Christmas tree covered in colorful concentric circles drawn with oil pastels, with one hand holding the top corner and the other hand using a paintbrush to add green watercolor on a green table surface as part of a Kandinsky Christmas tree art project.

Vocabulary to use while creating Kandinsky Christmas tree art

Circle – A round, flat shape with no corners and no ends.
Concentric – Shapes that share the same center, like circles that sit inside each other like a stack of rings.
Pattern – A design that repeats again and again, such as blue circle, yellow circle, blue circle, yellow circle.
Diameter – A line that goes all the way across a circle, passing through the exact middle.
Abstract – Art that does not try to look like real objects and instead uses shapes, lines, and colors.
Resist – When one art material, like oil pastel, keeps another material, like watercolor, from soaking into the paper.

Four children wearing matching green-and-white striped pajamas sit at a green table near a decorated Christmas tree and a windowsill with Santa and Mrs. Claus figures, smiling toward the camera while triangular papers with circular designs and art supplies are laid out in front of them for a Kandinsky Christmas tree art project.

Building focus and stamina with concentric circles

Concentric circles are simple, but they ask kids to slow down and stay with a repeating idea for longer than a quick scribble.

As children move from one circle to the next, they’re practicing sustained attention: starting a task, sticking with it, and bringing it to completion.

Finishing an entire tree covered in circles gives them a really satisfying “I did it!” moment that builds confidence and motivation to tackle other longer projects.

Art is magic, friends.