With October came a new theme at preschool . . . “Fall Harvest”. It’s a broad topic so that each Mom’s Day Out and Preschool teacher has a lot of leeway in her planning. Mary Poppins, Ice Ice Lady, and I decided to focus on apples, pumpkins, fall, and Halloween within this month’s theme. One of the first art activities we did with the students was apple print-making. This is a pretty common activity for early childhood classrooms, I know, but it’s common for a reason — the children love painting with apples!
To set up, I put red, green, and yellow paint on separate paper plates. Mary Poppins and I cut the apples in half so the children could see the seed pods inside. I put corn cob holders in the top of each apple (I saw the idea on Share and Remember’s “Apple Prints” post). The corn cob holders definitely made it easier for the students to keep hold of the apples.
While the kiddos enjoyed painting with apples, this activity also encouraged a variety of learning. There was the sensory experience with the apples — seeing, touching, and smelling the apples while painting. Letting the children use unconventional art materials encouraged them to “think outside the box”. They were also able to explore colors, color-mixing, shapes, and textures. On top of all that, we discussed different facts about apples while the children painted.
As always, I got a kick out of watching the children paint. Some children were very meticulous in their painting. They made patterns and didn’t want the different apple prints to touch.
Others decided they’d rather slide the apples along the paper, creating a more “free form” piece of art. Either way, we all had fun with this art project!
As you can see, it was difficult to get a picture of these boys while they were painting. They were moving those apples so fast!
Have you and your children or students ever painted with apples? What was your experience like?
Shared at Kids in the Kitchen
what a waste of a perfectly delicious apple 🙂 just kidding
thanks for linking up to #kidsinthekitchen this week
Hahaha! Those were actually leftover apples we had after a taste-testing the day before. They were the “bad apples” of the bunch. 🙂 Thanks so much for hosting, Melinda!