apples

Teaching Seasons with a Simple Wall Tree

 

What better way to teach the changing of the seasons than with a wall tree!

 

For Fall: momstown got busy creating a large wall tree to hold all of our apples. It was a fun way to mark the season. All the neighbourhood kids got in on the action and spent a morning making apples and creating the tree.

 

Here's what you need to make it: 

Brown card stock or construction paper

scissors

blank wall

 

Here's what you need to do:

1. Create a tree using brown construction paper or card stock. You can tape sections together to create a larger than life creation!

 

tree craft

 

2.  Trace your handprint to create the green leaves.

 

tree craft, fall

 

3.  Tape the leaves and apples to the tree to complete your FALL display.

 

fall craft, tree,

 

This corner is in our basement playroom and we talked about making it a full four season tree. Taping up snowflakes in the winter and removing the leaves. Adding blossoms in the spring and loads of leaves in the summer.

Quite the discussion point and fantastic resource for learning seasons!

 

 

Posted by momstown mama on 10/03/2012 - 20:26
Labels:
ShareThis share this post

Tissue Paper Apples

 

Fall is not only the perfect time to pick apples and cook with apples, it is a great time to create some apple crafts with the kids!

 

Tissue Paper Apples:

 

Here's what you need to make it:

- cardboard apple cutouts

- tissue paper squares (red, green, yellow)

- glue & scissors

 

Here's what you need to do:

This is a  simple apple project, perfect for a group of random aged kids. momstown had kids between age 2 and 10 creating a variety of apples all together.

 

1.  Trace and cut out apple shapes on old cardboard from cereal boxes or old cardboard boxes.

 fall craft, apples

 

2.  Dab glue or cover the apple in glue, then add your tissue paper (each age will attempt to try this in many different ways).  Some children scrunched up the tissues paper to make a definitive apple. Younger one slapped down the tissue paper flat to make a messier but fun version. Others used the end of a pencil to create a fuller, more 3D apple. Open to all creativity.

fall craft, apples

 

fall craft, apples

 

3. Fill in the apple (red or green) until you can't see the cardboard! 

 

fall craft, apples

 

4.  Use your apple to decorate a tree or use as a thank you gift for your teacher!

fall craft, apples

 

If you loved making this craft, we have so many other apple crafts and activities for preschoolers; including apple trees for any age!

 

Posted by momstown mama on 10/03/2012 - 19:47
Labels:
ShareThis share this post

40 Fun Fall Activities For Kids

 

1. Jump in a pile of leaves.  Make sure you take pictures!

2. Make baked apples

3. Visit a corn maze

4. Make leaf rubbings

5. Make a things we're thankful for tree (more on this soon)

6. Have a bonfire or campfire

7. Make people, shapes, and letters out of sticks and leaves

8. Roast pumpkin seeds

9. Pop popcorn in a pot on the stove

10. Watch the geese fly south

11. Make apple cider

12. Plant paperwhite bulbs for Christmas gifts and decorations (plant in mid November for Christmas blooms)

13. Make a scarecrow

14. Visit a fall fair

15. Go apple picking

16. Visit a favourite park and observe how it has changed since the summer

17. Join in a turkey trot fun run for a local charity

18. Donate food to the food bank. Consider canvassing your neighbours for donations too

19. Read "Pumpkin Soup" by Helen Cooper, and make pumpkin soup of your own

20. Help a neighbour rake their leaves

21. Spot an owl

22. Bake pumpkin cookies

23. Take a flashlight walk through your neighbourhood

24. Make pumpkin pie smoothies

25. Make leaf prints by dipping leaves into paint

26. Go for a walk in the forest to see the fall colours

27. Visit a pumpkin patch

28. Make thank you cards and give them out to people just because

29. Pumpkin Lattes! (order steamed milk for the kids)

30. Go through last year's winter gear, and make puppets out of single mittens

31. Plant tulip bulbs outside so you'll have flowers in spring

32. Visit a local farm and buy produce

33. Make apple butter

34. Have an indoor campout: set up a tent in the living room, roll out sleeping bags, and have hot dogs, smores, and other camping foods for dinner. Turn off the electronics and lights and read stories and games by flashlight

35. Embrace the wind and fly a kite

36. Collect pinecones.  Try to find different types and sizes.

37. Make a bird feeder

38. Go on a hayride

39. Host a winter kids gear swap with friends. Trade last year's too small coat for one that fits, and let the kids have a fashion show.  Donate any extra gear to charity

40. Make pumpkin pie playdough

 

For more seasonal activities for the whole family, delivered to your inbox every month, sign up for our newsletter!

Posted by momstown Teach on 09/14/2012 - 16:10
Labels:
ShareThis share this post

Apple Crafts and Activities for Preschoolers

It is apple picking season in many parts of the country, and that makes it the perfect time to do an apple themed unit with your preschool or toddlers.  From books about apples, to apple crafts, to apple songs and fingerplays, and recipes with apples, there are so many great ways to learn about apples with kids. After a recent trip to the farmer's market, we made these paper plate apples:

 

 

This is a great craft to do with very young children, or a group with mixed ages.  Even our youngest crafters had fun fingerpainting their apples:

 

 

Here's what you need to make your own paper plate apple:

  • a white paper plate
  • red paint (a marker or crayon would work too)
  • brown construction paper
  • green construction paper
  • glue
  • scissors

1. Paint your back of your paper plate red.

2. While paint is drying, cut out a rectangle out of brown construction paper for the apple's stem, and a leaf shape out of green construction paper.

3. Once paint is dry, glue the brown stem to the top center of your apple, and glue the leaf to one side of the stem.

 

OPTIONAL: You can also turn this craft into a great bulletin board display or gift for a parent or grandparent by having kids glue pictures of themselves to the centre of the apples, and writing the words "You're the apple of my eye" onto the front of the apple with a black marker, or "Our Students are the Pick of the Crop" to a header above the bulletin board.

 

 

Need ideas for apple songs and fingerplays to go along with your craft? Here are two of our favourites:

 

Here We Go Round the Apple Tree

(Sung to the tune of "Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush")

Here we go round the apple tree,
The apple tree, the apple tree,
Here we go round the apple tree,
On an autumn morning.

Following verses:

2. This is the way we shake the tree...
3. This is the way we climb the ladder...
4. This is the way we pick the apples...
5. This is the way we eat the apples...

~anonymous

 

Five Red Apples


5 Red apples, hanging on the tree (hold up your hand showing 5 fingers)
Boy oh boy, they look good to me (place your hand on your forehead as if you were shading your eyes to look up)
So I picked one off and munch, munch, munch (pretend you're eating an apple)
I ate that apple for my lunch! (rub your stumach)

Continue counting down. After you've eaten the last apple, chant the following verse:

No red apples hanging on the tree
I ate them all for lunch you see
But the little green apples will soon be red
And I’ll eat them for my lunch instead!

~ C. Reid

Posted by momstown Teach on 09/13/2012 - 21:43
Labels:
ShareThis share this post

Tissue paper fall trees

momstown Calgary North had a fall-themed playdate complete with a fall coloured tree similar to our apple tree craft!

apple tree tissue paper

 

What you need:

  • Toilet roll
  • Cardstock or cardboard
  • Tissue paper (yellow/orange/red for leaves)
  • Glue
  • Scissors

apple tree tissue paper Cut out tree shapes from cardboard, and have children decorate with tissue paper in different fall colours, there's no way to do it wrong. You can scrunch up the tissue paper and glue it on in little bunches, or just have small pieces of tissue cut or torn to glue on.

 

apple tree tissue paperThen, cut a slit in the top of a toilet paper roll, and insert the tree leaves into the 'trunk'!

 

What a great fall craft and easy enough for toddlers and preschoolers to do!

 

 

Posted by Teacher Mom on 10/17/2011 - 21:05
Labels:
ShareThis share this post

Apple Trees for every age

Three momstown kids - ranging in age from 1 to 6 - made three apple trees!

apple trees

Take your empty toilet rolls and you can make three different kids of apple trees!

1. Foamy tree with foam "apples" (baby and toddler version)
2. Mosaic tree with foam, paper and bead "apples" (preschool version)
3. Tissue paper apple tree (from the newly minted grade one!)

 

apple trees

What you need:

  • Toilet rolls
  • Glue
  • Scissors
  • Green paper
  • Red or green foam sheets
  • Red or green beads
  • Cardboard for tree backing (cereal boxes work well!)
  • Brown crayon
  • Green and red tissue paper

 

apple trees For all the trees you need a firm backing for the leaf part, so start by tracing a tree shape onto cardboard and have children cut out.

 

 

 

 

apple treesCover the tree shape in glue to prepare for the mosaic or foam tree.

 

 

apple trees

 

 

 

Here's the mosaic apple tree in progress - have your child cut out shapes and glue on to the tree. We have a scissor loving kid in our house so he had fun snipping pieces of scrap paper for the tree.  Then add red and green beads or red circle cut-outs for apples!

 

 

 

apple trees

For the foamy (simplest) version, cut out a foamy tree shape (use your cardboard cutout as a pattern) and have your baby or toddler glue on red circles and beads (careful for choking if doing this with a young one).

 

 

 

 

 

apple trees

Cut tissue paper into 2 inch squares. Have glue handy on a plate or scrap paper for "dipping". Dip small, scrunched up pieces of tissue into the glue and stick onto the cardboard baking to create the tissue paper apple tree. Use green for the leaves and red for the apples. This one was made by a 6 year old who had lots of patience, a young child may need a hand to complete with you.

 

For all tree styles, cut approximately half an inch on two sides of the toilet roll to create an insert space for the treetop to slip into to attach.

 

 

This is a perfect idea for a mixed age playgroup or family craft!

Posted by momstown mama on 09/12/2011 - 18:51
Labels:
ShareThis share this post
12next ›last »