Apple Theme Arts and Crafts
We were able to fill our bulletin board, windows and even send a project home during our Apple theme week in PreK. My Apple Theme Lesson Plan for PreK included three arts and crafts projects. One project was switched after an attempt at an idea seen online just was not working well.
We started out with marble painting. I used bits of painter’s tape to attach the outline of an apple to the bin. Students chose an apple color (or two) and I squeezed some paint near the apple outline. I then added four or five marbles and students moved the container around to make the marbles move through the paint and all over the apple. Yes, we did have a few marbles escape.
Another craft we did were sun catchers, inspired by these. Students chose the color apple they wanted and were allowed to choose from green, yellow, and red tissue paper squares. I used fishing line and paper clips to string them along our windows for display.
Finally, we made some apple cores with paper plates, paint, and black beans. I had planned to try creating three dimensional apples from parts of egg cartons, but I either did not have enough tape or the example I saw online was made from a very different brand of egg cartons.
Craft supplies you will need for these projects (affiliate links):
Apple Theme Fine Motor
Besides crafting, students also did some fine motor practice with q-tip painting and cutting practice with apple themes. The q-tip pages can be found from 1+1+1=1. I provided apple colors to do this painting. The cutting practice is found at This Reading Mama. We saved the cut pieces that students did not want to take home to use during our Scrap Bin Friday when we put out the scrap bin and various supplies for students to create whatever they want.
Apple Theme Easel and Math Center
I pulled out the magnetic Apple Orchard set for the easel again this year. This set is meant to be used with play dough, but I repurposed it for my easel.
Students all played Hi Ho Cherry O, pretending that the cherries were apples. This was a center that my assistant pulled students in pairs to play on Monday and then it was available for students to play on their own the rest of the week. This is an older version. The newer version has apples, cherries, blueberries, or oranges for the trees. You can see that version below.
Literacy and Name Practice
Not everything in our room was apple related this week. Our letter focus was the letter C, so we had various activities during circle time as well as a couple dot marker pages and building words that start with C on one side of the easel.
We also did some name writing practice in the writing center. Students traced, stamped, and wrote their names. We do this activity periodically throughout the year to assess growth.
Apple STEM and Sensory
The science table for Apple theme in PreK involved some easy materials to gather. Students took the materials to create apple trees. The goal was to put as many apples on the tree as possible. I found inspiration for this center on this blog.
For the sensory bin for our Apple theme in PreK my director got me several bags of split peas. I added a couple cinnamon sticks, some apples, magnets, and some apples created from pipe cleaners. During the week I suggested that the students rub the sticks together and then smell them so they could figure out what they were.
Apple Orchard Dramatic Play
This year’s Apple Orchard was fairly simple to set up since I had created the tree tops last year and had put them in storage. The tree tops are painted cardboard with velcro spots on them. The apples are ball pit balls with the other side of the velcro on them. I recommend the soft side of the velcro on the balls so they don’t stick to other things. The tree tops stick to a long strip of velcro that I placed on the bottom edge of my bulletin board.
The Apple Orchard cards can be found in my shop. For students who start thinking of the apples as balls, the cards a great way to re-direct students to the intent of the pretend play as well as get in some color recognition and counting skills. Students enjoyed filling my apple order when I gave them a card.
During our circle and story times we read several apple and fall related books. Below you can see some affiliated links to get more information about them. My favorite new to me book is Hungry Bunny.
Get my free Apple Lesson Plan for PreK
Click the link below to access my complete lesson plan for this apple week:
You can find more freebies on my Freebies for PreK Teachers page.
