PreK Apple Theme is a very busy one in our classroom. We create several arts and crafts projects, make apple sauce as well as play in the apple orchard and play with lots of apple themed centers.
PreK Apple Theme Craft
One craft is the apple core project, made with paper plates. The leaf is made with part of the piece cut away from the plate. I let my students choose which color apple they want to create. As you can see, one friend even wanted one part of the apple to be yellow and one part red. I think she wanted to use all the paint colors. The seeds are actually black beans that we have on hand for sensory bins. Students get to practice using glue sticks and bottled glue for this project.
Apple Marble Painting
Another apple project is this process art marble painting. Students could choose one or two colors of paint for this. I place blobs of paint on the paper, but not on the apple outline. Each child has to use the movement of the bin to move the marbles around to get the paint onto the apple outline. This is definitely a favorite activity for most students. Looking at the direction of the marble lines helps me see which ways each student thought to move the bin.
PreK Apple Theme Math
Each year we pretend the cherries are apples in the Hi Ho Cherry-O game. There are several different versions of this game available now. Be sure to read reviews of the newer versions since I have read that some are flimsy and do not have individual buckets anymore. The one I am sharing below looks like it has four buckets and four different fruits.
Another apple themed game is this Apple Coverall from Recipe for Teaching. I like that it has a game board for the numeral, fingers, and ten frames so students can practice recognizing all of them. I make sure these type of games are on the table where I have my posters for numbers one through ten posted. When I work with students I show them how to count the posters to help them find the numeral if they do not remember what it looks like.
Making Apple Sauce
This year I used my pressure cooker for the first time to make apple sauce with my students instead of my slow cooker. This was a great success. Students cut the apple slices into smaller pieces and then dumped them in the pressure cooker. I also had students put in the small amount of cinnamon, brown sugar, salt, and water before shutting the pressure cooker and starting it. I mostly followed this recipe. We used Gala apples and 2 Tablespoons of brown sugar.
Additions to the Apple Orchard
The Apple Orchard was already up when the week began. I added caramel apples and apple pies for students to pretend with in dramatic play. Since I keep a dramatic play theme up for a few weeks, I often add something to it each week to add interest and new ideas. The caramel apples are made with popsicle sticks, foam apples, and some cool corrugated paper that appeared in our art closet. The pies are made with aluminum tins, pom poms, and brown felt.
PreK Apple Theme Sensory Bin
Split peas make a great contrast to the red apples in the sensory bin. I include a couple cinnamon sticks for students to rub together to add some scent to this activity. This bin also has some science in it with the apples made from pipe cleaners and a magnet wand. Most items in this bin were found at the local dollar store, although I think the apples came from a craft store. When introducing a magnet wand I think it is important to have magnetic as well as non-magnetic items to test.
Apple Theme Building and STEM
I found some printable pages to use with linking cubes to build apples, apple trees, and the letter A.
I also followed this idea to have students create apple trees with TP tubes, popsicle sticks and pom poms. I saw quite a few apple trees as well as other interesting creations throughout the week.
Where to find more ideas
Looking for more ideas? You can find one of my PreK Apple Theme Lesson Plans on my Freebies for PreK Teachers Page.
My Apple Orchard Activity Cards, which includes the cards, name tags, and a new poster for your dramatic play area can be found in my TPT shop.
