The leaves are changing into beautiful colors, Halloween costumes line the stores and the smell of apple pie is in the air! That’s right everyone, it’s FALL!
Fall has to be my favorite time of year. I love all the decorations, the gorgeous colors and, of course, all the yummy treats! What I also LOVE is apple picking. Picking apples is one of the great past times in NJ. Apple orchards are everywhere offering a wide variety of apple picking experiences.
If you are anything like me, then you visit a few different orchards to pick apples and end up with way more apples than you could ever eat! Well, I am here to tell you all the wonderful, educational activities you can do with apples this season! Everybody knows how yummy apples are to eat, but did you know that you can also use them for fun crafts, academic activities and sensory play?
10 Fun and Educational Activities Using Apples
Stamps: Making apple stamps are not only easy and fun, but they are also a great way to use the apples that have one too many bumps and bruises. All you have to do is cut the apple in half, dip it in paint and stamp away!
Here is a fun apple stamp project my son did at preschool!
Sorting: Have your kids sort the apples by size and color. This is great for enhancing thinking and reasoning skills.
Counting: This is a very simple but excellent learning activity. Just have your kids count all the apples. They can also put them into groups of 5 or 10 then count by that.
Make Apple Pie: Baking is a wonderful way to teach kids both math and science concepts. It’s also a great life skill as well as a wonderful bonding experience.
Doesn’t that look amazing? My cousin Rilla loves baking fall favorites with her kids, and this is one of her master pieces!
Addition and Subtraction with Apple Seeds: Apple seeds make great manipulatives for math problems. Take out the seeds, clean them and keep them in a container. When your child is doing math homework, let them use the seeds to help solve the problems.
Make Apple Sauce: This is a fun activity to do with little ones. Mashing the apples (once softened) helps increase fine motor strength and control. Apple sauce is also a healthy snack that can be brought to school or enjoyed at home as a nice treat.
Apple Taste Test: This is a great way to get the senses involved. Cut the apples into small pieces and decide which ones are too sweet, too tart or just right. You can also decide which ones are soft or hard to bite. Identifying these characteristics is also great for enhancing language development!
Apple Sensory Bins: As we have discussed before, kids learn through all their senses. Little ones and those with developmental delays learn a great deal when a multi-sensory approach is used especially one that involves touching, seeing and smelling the objects of focus. An apple sensory bin can include the entire apple or just the seeds. They can also just involve the scent of an apple. Check out our Fall Sensory Activities article for more ideas!
This sensory bin is great for engaging the sense of touch and smell!
Science Experiments: There are some fun and interesting experiments that can be done with apples. For example, cut some apples in half and see what happens when they are left outside, in the fridge or on the table. You can also see what happens if you add a little lemon juice.
Play Dough Apples: There are a million play dough recipes out there so I won’t bore you with another one, but this season try to make one that is apple or cinnamon scented to add some flare! To create your own play dough apples, save the stems and leaves of the apples you have picked and eaten. Roll the play dough into balls and add the stem and leaves. For even more pretend play action, use small crates or boxes and pretend to go apple picking!
Apple Towers: This is a great activity for kids who love building toys! Cut the apples into cube sized pieces then have the kids make their own towers. They can use peanut butter or caramel as an adhesive. Older kids can also use toothpicks to create even more complex designs.
I hope you have enjoyed our list of fun activities to do with apples! If you have any other ideas, please let us know!
These are great ideas! We went apple picking a couple of weeks ago but already used them all so I see a return visit in our future.
Thanks Marci! Have fun playing with apples!