Preschool Apples Activities, Crafts, Lessons, and Games

Apple Learning Centers and Activities

Pretend Play Area
Make several cotton ball apples or paper apples. Create two large trees with brown packing paper and green craft paper and attach to a wall. Add a small velcro dot to each apple and on the trees. Attach apples to trees. Provide baskets and let children pick the apples from the trees. 

Fine Motor Skills Area (Finger Gym)

Apple Lacing
Provide a basket full of red, yellow, and green card stock apples with holes punched along the edges. In a other basket, place lengths of yarn in the same colors with one end re-inforced with tape. Let children lace the apple cut-outs.

Apple Harvest
Print a picture of an apple tree and place red pom-poms on the tree. Let children use jumbo tweezers to pick the apples from the tree and place them inside a basket. 

Apple Tree Craft
Trace a tree top shape on to green craft paper and cut out. Provide children with red tissue paper. Demonstrate how to roll and crumple the tissue paper to make small red apples. Let children glue the apples on to the tree top cut-out and let dry. Make two cuts on one end of the paper roll and slide tree top inside.

Apples Math Learning Centers 

Apple Picking (Counting)
Draw an apple tree on a piece of paper. Place 12 red pom-poms on the tree. Let children roll a die and pick the matching number of apples off the tree and put them inside a basket.

Apple Sorting and Patterning
Provide red, yellow, and green pom-poms and three small baskets. Let children sort the "apples" by colors. Then encourage children to create a pattern with the apples.

Printables and game available inside our KidsSoup Resource Library

Apples Number Sense
Print out 10 apple trees and write the numbers 1-10 below each tree. Laminate each card. Provide children with some red-apple scented play dough. Let children roll the play dough in to small apples and place the matching number of apples on each card.

Apples Reading Learning Centers 

A is for Apple and Alligator Letter A Activities (Printables and activities available inside our ABC Twiggles Member Site)
Letter A exploration and Letter A recognition worksheet. Children practice writing the lowercase and uppercase letter A und read a story about Angry Ally Alligator.

Letter A Recognition Activity
Label apple cut-outs with several letter "A, a" and some with with other lowercase letters. Let children sort and place the apples with the letters "A, a" on an apple tree printable or inside a basket.

Letter a Recognition and Visual Discrimination Activity (coming this Fall to our KidsSoup Resource Library)

Apples up on Top: Letters of the Alphabet Game and Activitiy (Printables and activities available inside our KidsSoup Resource Library)
Great letters of the alphabet review activity and game. 

 

Apples Circle Games and Activities

My Favorite Apple
Ask children what apple color is their favorite. Cut the apples in small pieces and let children taste each apple. Which apple did they like best? Create a graph and let children choose the matching apple cut-out and place it on the graph.

Extension: Let children draw an apple and color it. Write I like (color) apples below the drawing and let children dictate or write the matching color name on the page.

An Apple a Day Lesson Plan and Activities (Available inside our KidsSoup Resource Library)

Apple Action Rhyme
Way up high in the apple tree. (Point up.)
Two little apples smiled at me. (Make a shape of a apple with your hand.)
I shook that tree as hard as I could. (Pretend to shake a tree.)
Down fell the apples. (Raise hands and let them fall.)
MMMMMM, were they good! (Circle tummy.)

My Apple Tree Movment and Gross Motor Skill Story and Activity (Available inside our KidsSoup Resource Library)

ABC Apples (Printables and activities available inside our KidsSoup Resource Library)
Place the ABC Apples face down in the middle of the circle. Invite a child to "pick" an apple and name the letter on the apple. Ask children whose name begins the same letter. Let the child place the letter in your reading chart or on the wall.

Apples matching
Print the lowercase and uppercase apples and cut out. Let children match the apples.

Apples ABC Order
Let children place the apples in the correct ABC order.

Apple Picking Number Recognition - Activity and printables available inside our KidsSoup Resource Library)

Write the numbers 1-10 or 11-20 on apple cut-outs. Say the rhyme below and choose one child to pick an apple. Then, pretend to pick the matching number of apples off the tree by stretching your arm.

(Name of child) Picking apples one, two, three
Tell me what number will it be?

Ten Apples Up On Top Activities

View all our Ten Apples Up On Top preschool and kindergarten activities, games, and crafts

FREE Apple Printables

Apple Tree Coutning	Apple Cutting Worksheet	Make and Count Fingerprint Apples	EarTwiggle with Apple Coloring

Apple Lacing
Print and glue an apple on cereal box carton and cut out. Punch holes all around the apple. Put tape on one end of a length of yarn. With a knot, tie the yarn on the apple. Have children lace around the apple.

Apples In the Kitchen Science Activities and Snacks

Dried Apple Rings
Peel, core, and cut apples into chip-sized circles. Dip the circles in fresh lemon juice. Use a wire cutter to cut a white-coated clothes hanger. Decorate the hanger with some apples made out of craft paper and add the apple rings. (Don't let the apple slices touch each other.) Hang the apples in a dry, airy spot and let them dry for one to two weeks. Tip: Turn the apples every day.

Make Your Own Applesauce
Applesauce is easy to make. Five pounds of apples make about two quarts of applesauce. Peel, core, and slice apples into quarters. Put in a pot and partially cover with water. Boil apples until they are soft. Let children use a potato masher to mash the apples to make applesauce. Add sugar and cinnamon to taste.

Apple Science
Let children discover the difference between raw, cooked, and baked apples. Cut a couple of apples into slices and bake or simmer. Children will be able to experience the changes in color, texture, and taste.

Apple Science Lesson available inside our KidsSoup Resource Library

Apple Printing and Craft
Cut an apple in half. Stick a plastic fork inside the apple and let children make apple prints. 

Apple Rhyme: 

Eat an apple,
Save the core.
Plant the seeds,
And grow some more.
(Author Unknown)

Ten Red Apples
Ten red apples grow on a tree
Five for you and five for me
Help me shake the tree just so
And ten red apples down below
1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10

Johnny Appleseed Activities

As a young boy, John Chapman (Johnny Appleseed) loved to help take care of apple orchards. He loved eating and picking apples. He spent 50 years planting appleseeds and tending and growing apple trees. He traveled around the country to spread his precious trees. (Learn more about his life.)

Read the book Johnny Appleseed to children.

Johnny Appleseed Headband 
Make a simple Johnny Appleseed headband. Cut two 2-inch wide strips out of gray craft paper and tape together to make a headband. Trace an apple shape on red craft paper and let children cut out the apple and glue to the middle of the headband. Cut a leaf out of green craft paper and glue on the apple. Invite children to write their name on the apple. Fit the headband around the child's head and staple together. 

Johnny Appleseed Puppet and Craft (Patterns and step-by-step instructions available inside our KidsSoup Resource Library)
Use the Johnny Appleseed Puppet to re-tell the story.

Apple Science Preschool and Kindergarten Activities

From Seed to Apple 
Talk about what plants need to help them grow. All seeds and plants need sun, water, air, nutrients, and soil in order to grow. After an apple seed is planted, it takes a few weeks before it will sprout. Then, the roots grow down into the soil. The stems grow upward and toward the light and leaves begin to develop on the stems. Apple trees do not bear fruit until they are five to eight years old. Then, fragrant white blossoms appear in the spring. The flowers are pollinated by bees and other insects. When the blossoms fall off, small baby apples begin to grow in their place. Only flowers that have been pollinated can grow into apples. By late summer, the apples are fully grown and ripe. The apples are handpicked, washed, and stored.

Apple Life Cycle Science Activities (Printables and activity available inside our KidsSoup Resource Library)
Let children cut out pictures of the apple life cycle and glue them in order.

Make a Apple Book Craft (Printables and activity available inside our KidsSoup Resource Library)
Print out the life cycle of an apple pages and assemble together. Trace and cut out the two apple shapes from red craft paper and glue to the front and to the back of the apple pages. Encourage children to color the pictures and tell you about each page.