It’s fall! I don’t usually get into new seasons or upcoming holidays early but for some reason, I’ve been getting really excited about fall activities over the last few days. {And it’s definitely not the weather!}
So as one of our first activities to welcome fall, we did a great simple art activity: Apple Printing Process Art!
(E was 2 years and 10 months old.)
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Materials for Apple Printing
- Apple.
-
Liquid watercolors. (See note below.)
- Poster board.
I cut an apple into three pieces, poured some liquid watercolors into paper plates with E’s help, and put down some poster board on the table.
First off, E removed the sticker from the apple – apparently, even printing apples can’t have stickers 😉
But after that, she was ready for some serious apple printing!
After I saw that the prints didn’t exactly look like I thought they would, I tried to re-cut to make the surface smoother but apparently, it’s not that easy to make a truly straight cut in an apple…
E didn’t really mind either way and experimented with one of the quarters while I was re-cutting,
but went right back to the half afterward.
The new cut made slightly better prints – still not how I’d envisioned it but it didn’t diminish E’s enjoyment of this activity at all.
She tried “patting down” the apple
and even stood up on her chair to push down on the apple.
After a while, the poster board became quite colorful!
E proceeded to bang the apple on the paper several times,
held it over her head to get a good look
and dropped it!
All this exploration seemed to make her hungry, and she asked for a different apple she could eat 🙂
She kept switching between eating the red apple and printing with the green – and never got confused once!
Towards the end of the activity, E tried the quarter again and banged it around a bit as well.
While we didn’t get the obvious “apple prints” I’d thought we would, this was absolutely great fun for E, she thoroughly explored her apple, and she liked the results enough that she suggested that Papa should take the poster board to work tomorrow 🙂
Additional suggestions for your apple printing activities:
- I think liquid watercolors just don’t lend themselves to easily making full prints of the cut side of the apple. Next time, I want to try tempera paint for “fuller” results.
- Cut the apple horizontally or diagonally.
- Make prints with an uncut apple.
- Use more than one apple to allow for even more exploration (stacking, comparing, etc.)
Want more apple-related activities? I’ve got you covered!
Apple Suncatcher Toddler Craft
Apple Counting Grids for Preschoolers by Life Over Cs
Apple Jar Craft by Easy Peasy and Fun
Apple Dice Number Matching Game
Yarn Apple Craft by Hands On As We Grow
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We have never tried this but it is on our list of Autumn Crafts to try!
Awesome, let me know how you guys like it!
I love E’s techniques. She’s quite the process artist! 🙂
Thank you, Emma. She does have the best ideas – we wouldn’t be doing half the activities we are without her creativity!
We need to do this. It looks like so much fun.
It was great fun – I’m sure you guys will enjoy it!
I love this!
Glad you like it, Michelle!
Might be even more fun with a couple different foods to explore the different textures and prints each make. And I would recommend tempura to get a good print, but how fun! And thanks for linking up to the Learn Through Play hop! Check back for more fun activities throughout the month and please share the fun!
Thanks for visiting, Leah! And what a great idea to extend the activity! Definitely using tempera paint next time 😉
I love how you used different apple shapes. I’ve always just cut the apple in half and used that. Next time I will cut slices and even have her roll the apple with paint. Great idea! Thank you for sharing at our Pinning for Play link party!
Thank you, Lauren! Apple rolling sounds awesome – it’ll be like a giant version of our marble and water bead painting activities 🙂
What colourful art. Love it!
Thanks for linking to The Sunday Showcase. I’ve pinned to our board.
Thank you, Rebecca!
Thank you so much for linking up to last week’s Discover and Explore linky. I’ll be featuring this post on Friday!
Thank you so much for hosting and featuring, Chelsey!
I love apple printing – looks like your wee one had such fun! And the apple rolling is a great idea too! We used apple prints to do some measuring – my wee one thought it was a fun way to measure – adding paint to any activity seems to make it more fun for my little guy! Your wee one is adorable I love her little orange dress 🙂
Ooh, measuring with apples sounds great! E really loves that orange dress – I’m not too fond of it but she definitely pulls it off 😉
Hello , we love painting with apples , too. Love the colors . If you love Apple Crafts check out
http://www.thisolemom.com/2013/09/kids-play-learn.html
Kim@ This Ole Mom
http://thisolemom.com
Thank you, Kim! Love your apple tree, what a cool idea!