1-2-3 Come Make Some Apple Art With Me!

I've had several requests for some quick and easy art activties, that teachers can do in a short amount of time, or set up as centers.  Here are some of my all-time favorites.

A melted crayon apple looks awesome and takes only a few minutes to make.  Students cut out their apple and glue a leaf and stem to it. Teacher reads the poem and reviews rhyming. "Apples can be yellow, red or green.  These are the prettiest apples you've ever seen!"

As a terrific fine motor skill, children peel a red, yellow and green broken crayon. 

When it is their turn, children bring their apple and crayons to the adult-run center, where they "shave" their crayons in a crayon sharpener, to make piles of shavings.  Students pinch some and sprinkle in a few places on their apple, being careful not to cover the poem. 

The teacher or room helper, lays a piece of wax paper on top, and carefully presses down with an iron on its lowest setting.  After a few seconds (s)he gently peels back the paper to reveal a multi-colored apple tree.  My Y5's often squealed with delight at how cool their apple looked.  Click on the link to view/download the Crayon Melt Apple activity.

Another easy apple "craftivity" that helps strengthen finger muscles, is a rip and tear apple.  Even a young child can work independently at this center, as they tear red, yellow, green, and brown strips of paper into color piles, and then glue them to their apple cut out. 

Any of these projects make an outstanding apple bulletin board, or if you do several, arrange them all on a wall, with the caption: Apple-icious Work! Click on the link to view/download the Rip & Tear Apple pattern.

As you can see in the photographs, I have my kiddo's use yellow, green and red, to reinforce the fact that apples can be all of those colors. Another way to bring this idea home, is to have children color the apple squares template.  I designed the "graph" paper with large squares for little ones, as well as smaller squares for older children. 

Use this "craftivity" to reinforce an ABC pattern as well. Click on the link to view/download The Color-Me Apple activity.

Every now and then, I liked to throw in a few crafts that I knew parents would absolutely love.  

I call these "Keepsake Crafts."  Tracing a child's arm, on brown construction paper, with their fingers spread to make "branches" results in the perfect apple tree trunk.

Children dip their index finger in red paint, or red glitter glue and dab on 10 fingerprint apples.  Include a child's oval photo in the "hollow" of the tree, for that finishing touch. 

This apple craft has a poem, so you can review that genre, along with rhyming words.  "Cute little apples hanging from my tree.  I made them with my fingerprints; they're a special part of me. The 10th one will be the last; listen now and I'll count them fast: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10."

Having children count the 10 apples, reinforces that math standard as well. Click on the link to view/down load The Keepsake Apple Tree Pattern.

Finally, allowing children to paint, is a bit messy, but also provides wonderful fine motor skill practice, and my Y5's absolutely loved it. Have children add seeds to the back of their apple, by pressing their index finger onto a brown stamp pad and then making a star design in the center. 

To make this a noisemaker-shaker, add rice or birdseed before you staple their creation. These also look sweet dangling from the ceiling.  Click on the link to view/download the Painted Apple Bowl activity.

Thanks for visiting today.  Feel free to PIN away.  For more apple "craftivities" scroll down for the next blog article, featuring 6 more FREEBIES.  It's time for me to clean up my crafty messes and seek some sunshine before the summer's gone.  I'm wishing you an apple-icious afternoon.   

"The art of teaching, is the art of assisting discovery." -Mark Van Doren

5 pages.

Students will enjoy practicing 1-to-1 correspondence, by counting red, yellow and green pony beads onto apples numbered 1-5, and 6-10.  Color, as well as black and white apple cards, are included. If you like these cards, be sure and check out the matching pumpkin set.

4 pages.

Your students will enjoy painting their bowl red, yellow or lime green. They add apple "seeds" to the flip side, by pressing their index finger onto a brown stamp pad, and then making a star pattern in the center of the white circle.  If you want to make an apple "noisemaker-shaker" add a spoonful of rice or birdseed, before you staple the creation together.  Punch a hole in the stem and suspend from the ceiling.

3 pages.

Reinforce counting to 10 with this sweet keepsake craft.  The apples are fingerprints dipped in red glitter glue.  You could also use red or yellow paint.  The trunk of the apple tree was made by tracing the arm and hand of a child, with their fingers spread to make the branches. To add that finishing touch, have students glue their school photo in the hollow of the tree.

3 pages.

Help reinforce the science fact that apples can be 3 colors, with this quick and easy apple "craftivity." Includes an apple grid with large squares for little ones, and another with smaller squares for older students.

9 pages.

Your students will enjoy patterning with these apples.  They are a quick and easy way to help students understand the concept of patterning. Print, laminate and trim the apple cards, to make a lot of different pattern possibilities. Includes a red, yellow and green set of apples, featuring A,B, and C letters on them, as well as a blank set of each color, to program with whatever; plus a black and white set if you want to conserve ink, and run off on construction paper, to make games for your students.

1 page.

Print, laminate and trim, to make an apple color-word matching game.

4 pages.

Help students improve their writing skills by incorporating adjectives. Includes a blank, black and white, apple worksheet, where students describe the inside and outside of an apple; a filled-in apple in color, to use as an example; + an apple-adjective graphic organizer, where students write describing words in the blank apples, and then use the words to write a sentence below.

1 page.

A quick, easy and fun way for students to practice letter recognition.  The science fact, that apples are 3 colors, is reinforced by children using red, yellow and green crayons to identify the letters.

1-2-3 Come Measure Apples With Me!

Help your students learn about measurement, with this quick, easy and fun booklet.  Students measure height, weight, width and circumference of their apple. They trace and write vocabulary-building words, predict, answer questions, + collect and analyze data.  Investigating apples via this booklet, will help with Common Core State Standards: K.MD.1a, K.MD.2, 1.MD.1, and 1.MD.2.

Introduce measurement, by showing students all of the measuring materials and ask them if they know the names of these objects and what they are used for.  Discuss the value of measurement, as well as how and why people measure things. 

Ask for a bag of apples to be donated to the class, or have each child bring 1 or 2 in. (Make sure to buy a few extras yourself, for those children whose parents forgot.) Allow a few moments for children to really examine their apple by touching it, smelling it, describing their apple to a partner etc.

To make this do-able for non or beginning readers, work on the booklet as a whole group.  Read the 1st page aloud and model what you want your students to do, then have children do that portion of their investigation.  If you are teaching pre k you might want to do just 1 booklet as a class.  Older students can work on this independently.  Allow enough time so children don't feel rushed, and so everyone gets a turn using the scale.  To expedite things, you may want to borrow several other scales from fellow teachers for that part of your day.  To keep interest, with little ones, and because of time, you can also work on just one or two pages a day.

When your booklet is completed, read it aloud once more, and have children share their results as you read that page. Reinforce vocabulary by reviewing the measurement tools and words, and asking students: "What is a scale? What is it used for?"  "What is height? How can you measure it?" etc.

Click on the link to view/download the Apple Investigation booklet. 

Thanks for visiting today.  Feel free to PIN away! To ensure that "pinners" return to THIS blog article, click on the green title at the top; it will turn black; now click on the "Pin it" button.  If you'd like to see all of the creative educational items I spend way too much time pinning, click on the heart button to the right of the blog.  I have a board especially for apple activities.

"To accomplish great things, we must not only act but also dream, not only plan but also believe." -Anatole France