When Lisa Nelson sent us a picture of her creative idea to combine the 30 Piece Challenge with a fall leaf tree decoration in her studio last year, we knew we had to share with you. Her students enjoy a beautiful studio decoration and incentive while completing the 30 Piece Challenge!
Read our interview with Lisa about her 30 Piece Challenge Tree: how she thought of it, how to recreate it for your students, and what her students think about it!
And be sure to get the new 2026 30 and 40 Piece Challenge Charts!
This is the picture and caption Lisa posted in our private Facebook group for piano teachers that kicked off the idea for this blog post:
Lisa, how did the idea of the tree come to you?
I homeschooled for 16 years. During that time I learned that everything is educational, even leaves on trees! When I saw the guide for the 30 Piece Challenge in August I thought, “How can I make this challenge something visual? What can we build with this challenge?” It was fall so I had been dealing with a lot of leaves falling off trees. I had just received a box from Amazon the previous day with a bunch of brown paper from packaging. I thought it would make a great tree trunk & adding leaves was something visual that would grow as we progress.
beginning of the 30 Piece Challenge
How did you build and assemble it?
I added the tree trunk to my felt boards I have in my studio. I cut the leaves from construction paper. At first, I cut them in shapes of leaves, but after the first few hundred I realized cutting triangles is faster & doesn’t waste so much paper. I tacked a plastic bag for the leaves on the felt board so I can keep them accessible.
[Note: We have provided a leaf template that you can use if you’d like. We recommend printing the template on one piece of colored paper paper and then multiple sheets (not printed) on top of each other so one cutting can yield a number of leaves. But of course, triangles like Lisa used will also save you time!]
What do you say to introduce the 30 Piece Challenge and Tree to your students?
To introduce students to the 30 Piece Challenge, I’d show them the 30 Piece Challenge sheets, explain what a piece is, and how if it’s performance ready (polished & ready to perform at a recital), it is worthy of a leaf. And I like to tell them, “We are going to grow our tree to have over 700 leaves!”
How do you implement the 30 Piece Challenge with your Tree?
Most of my 28 students are at the primer level. The pieces they learn each week from their lesson book could earn a leaf. For the more advanced students, I award a leaf if they have improved on the piece that week, since their pieces sometimes take weeks. I also introduced shorter pieces and used the Rote & Reading® series. This was fun and encouraging for all. After they play a piece that is performance ready, I write the title on a leaf. I add the leaf to the tree with a thumb tack. (It’s possible to use 1 tack for multiple leaves.) I use the 30 Piece Challenge sheet provided by ComposeCreate® to record the title of the piece for myself. Each student has their own sheet as well.
I also use the Teacher Chart where you can list each student & fill in the dots as they complete a piece. This is also hanging in my studio. This is fun for them to actually see who is contributing to the tree.
When they complete their 30 Piece Challenge I award them with a noisemaker (plastic clapping hands from the dollar store). I take their picture in front of the growing tree & share it with their family. My studio will continue this challenge through February, and we started at the end of August.
(Note: the images of the children have been blurred to protect their privacy.)
How have your students reacted to the tree and seeing the leaves grow? Any cute stories about your students and the tree?
This has been fun. The students are motivated to progress. We have reinforced practice skills & refined repertoire for recitals through the 30 Piece Challenge. So far, we have 387 leaves on our tree. Next, I’m brainstorming on what I can do with all the leaves when we’ve completed the challenge… maybe flowers or something with the beach?
Look at those adorable, happy faces! We’d like to send a huge THANK YOU to Lisa Nelson for contributing her ideas to the ComposeCreate® community! If you’d like to see more about Lisa and her studio, check out her website: Nelsonpianoandmusic.com
How to make your own 30 Piece Challenge Tree
After seeing Lisa’s beautiful work, we thought it would be useful to create a free PDF with leaf shapes for you to cut out and use for your own studio. We recommend printing on regular weight paper, not cardstock. That way, you can stack the printed sheets and cut out multiple pages of leaves at once!
What do you think of Lisa’s studio decoration and incentive tree? Do you like this idea for your studio’s next 30 Piece Challenge? Tell us what you think in the comments!
Read more inspiring tips:
Do 30 Piece Challenge Pieces Need to be Memorized? New 2025 Charts!
Most Common Questions (and Answers!) about the 30 and 40 Piece Challenge
