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

1-2-3 Come Make The Life Cycle Of An Apple With Me!

There are 3 Life Cycle of an Apple craftivities in this packet.  Children can choose to glue the apple's life cycle on an apple, apple tree, or apple pie.

There is a front and back to the apple and apple tree projects. The apple has a sweet poem that I revamped, on the back.  The apple seeds are a child's finger print that was pressed onto a brown stamp pad.

On the apple life cycle TREE, students cut and glue apples for however many years old they are.

The life cycle of an apple (pie plate), was made by covering a paper plate with aluminum foil.  Because you are cutting a slice of apple pie to dangle, you have an opportunity to cover fractions as well.

There are also 2 different apple life cycle templates to choose from.  One apple life cycle is completed by using real photographs of the various stages and gluing them to the template. 

(See tree & pie photo.) The other apple life cycle, is made by coloring, cutting and gluing the pictures of each phase. (See apple photo.)

Completed projects look wonderful dangling from the ceiling.  The apple pie life cycle makes a sweet bulletin board.  I spray the pie slice with apple spice fragrance for that finishing touch.

Click on the link to view/download the Life Cycle Of An Apple Activities.

This packet will be FREE for an entire year (!) after which time, it will be up-date and rolled into my 33-page Life Cycle of an Apple Activities packet in my TpT shop.

Thanks for visiting.  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 located on the menu. 

If you'd like to see all of the other excellent-educational items that I post, click on the heart to the right of my blog.  I have an entire board for just apple activities, as well as another one for delicious apple recipes.

"Without leaps of imagination or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities.  Dreaming, after all, is a form of plannning." -Gloria Steinem

1-2-3 Come Do Some Apple "Craftivities" With Me

Studying apples was one of my very favorite units.  Apples can be used across the board for every subject.  I especially enjoy designing hands-on apple lessons that help students practice their fine motor + listening and following direction skills.  Because my room was on the far end of the school, one of the corridors provided a hallway to myself!  I LOVED decorating it to the hilt, with my students' "mess-terpieces"; we always received tons of compliments too.

To introduce, and encourage rhyming, I like to make up poems and songs to familiar tunes.  I used the tune of 3 Blind Mice for the Apples Apples Apples dangler.  It reinforces the concept of small-medium and large, as well as the fact that apples can be red, yellow or green.  Older students can also label the parts of an apple.

To make this even more special, have students glue their photo to the leaf, and press their pinkie finger on a brown stamp pad, to make the 5 seeds in the center of their apple.  Making a brown construction paper loop for a stem, adds pizzazz, and makes it easy to hang these from the ceiling. Click on the link to veiw/download the Apples Song Dangler.

Small squares of red, yellow and green tissue paper, collaged on a card stock apple, also provides great fine motor skill practice.  The results are truly amazing. For a high gloss finish, gently paint the top of the apple, with watered-down Elmer's white glue, or Modge Podge.  For that extra bit of pizzazz, add a scrap of calico fabric and a button. Click on the link to view/download the Tissue Paper Apple Activity.

If you've cut apples using an Ellison die-cut machine, save the outside "frame."  For an "instant" apple, put the "frame" on top of the tissue paper collage.  If you want these to have a "stained glass" look, collage the tissue squares on a sheet of wax paper, trim and hang in the window.

Another quick & easy craftivity your students can do, to reinforce the concept of 3D, as well as the fact that apples come in 3 colors, is to have them make an apple pencil topper. 

I call these apple twirlers, because you can rub the pencil between the palms of your hands and make the apple twirl. 

To make one, run off the apple template on red, green and yellow construction paper.  Students trim their apples, fold them in half and then glue each half together til they have a 3 dimensional apple, whose "faces" are red, green and yellow.   This is a teachable "fraction" moment, to cover the terms "whole" and "half."  While the glue is still wet, students slide their apple onto the top of their pencil.   Click on the link to view/download the Pencil Apple Twirler.  

A spin off of this activity, is a tri-colored apple paper chain.  Instead of putting their apple on top of a pencil, students add a seed center to each face, punch a hole at the base, make a yarn loop and attach yellow, red and green paper chain links.  Review an ABC-ABC pattern with your students, as well as odd and even numbers. 

They can make their chains as long as they have time for. Older students can write an apple fact on each one of the strip before they link them up.  Click on the bolded link above to view/download this craftivity.

Finally, to add a bit of pizzazz to your apple cut-outs, and help students strengthen their finger muscles, use a hand held crinkler, to give papers the look of corregated cardboard.

You can buy these rollers at any hobby store.  They retail for around $18, but watch for weekly 40%-50% off coupons and get one then. 

Students simply insert their paper into the roller and crank away.  My Y5's LOVED doing this, and nick named the machine "Mr. Cruncher Muncher." Click on the link for the pattern.

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"When you change the way you see things, the things you see change." -Unknown

1-2-3 Come Write About Apples With Me!

Increase your students' writing skills with this quick and easy apple "craftivity."   Before hand, brainstorm a list of adjectives that describe apples.  For a source of correct spelling, as well as ideas, write the words on the board to be used as a word bank, for your students to refer to as they write their "Apple Sense."  Encourage them to use at least one adjective for each section. 

Review what the 5 senses are and discuss them as they apply to apples.  So students know what to do, and can independently get to work, make an example of your own to share.

To add that finishing touch, have students glue their school picture to the leaf.  These make an "apple-icious" bulletin board.  Your caption could be:  A Crop/Bushel of Great Work or Mr(s). _______________ 's Students Get To The Core Of Writing. You could also punch a hole in the stem, and suspend the apples back-to-back from the ceiling.

Click on the link to view/download the Apple Sense Writing Activity. This activity will be FREE for an entire year, after which time it will be up-dated & become part of my 30-page, Apple Sense: Science & Writing Craftivities packet in my TpT shop.

Thanks for visiting today.  As always, feel free to PIN away.  I'm off to enjoy some summer sunshine.

"I find that a great part of the information I have acquired, was by looking up something and finding something else along the way." -Franklin P. Adams  

(This is so true for me, especially when I'm researching something on the Internet or Pinerest!  One thing definitely leads to another as the day flies by!)

1-2-3 Come Stack Apples With Me!

I like to combine a variety of skills and standards into one lesson, that way I'm covering quite a bit in a short amount of time.  The "Apples Up on Top" Name Activity involves math, reading, science and writing, plus completed projects make an adorable back-to-school bulletin board!

For example, if you run off the apple printable on yellow, red and green construction paper, students can learn the science fact, that apples can be 3 different colors. You can also teach students an ABCABC pattern. I've included a graphing extension to cover that concept as well.

Click on the link to view/download the Apples Up On Top Name Activity.

To further reinforce lessons, whenever I read a story, some sort of activity followed. Dr. Seuss' (Theo. LeSieg's) book, Apples Up On Top is a wonderful first week of school book, as we are in full swing studying apples. After reading the story, ask your students who the main animal characters are.  Run off the template that is appropriate for you, and have students choose one to color.

Print off the apples of your choice (plain red, numbered red, plain black & white, numbered black & white) for your students to (color), copy and glue "up on top" of their animal.  When everyone is done, count to 10 forwards as well as backwards. There's also a graphing extension to see how many students chose a specific animal.

The printable can also be used as a dice game for older students. They choose a partner and take turns rolling first one die, for numbers 1-6, and then add a second die, enabling them to roll numbers 7-10, when they add the 2 together. 

I've included numbered strips for this game.  The numbered strips are also good for preschoolers who are not able to sequence yet.  This is great 1-to-1 correspondence for them. 

Click on the link to view/download the Apples Up On Top With Animals Activity.

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"You give but little when you give of your possessions.  It is when you give of yourself that you truly give." -Kahlil Gibran