The general rule we tell kids is: don’t play with your food… but sometimes it’s so much fun! With Autumn falling upon us, I decided to do this fun, hands-on activity with the kids. It’s very simple and the kids loved it because they were able to manipulate apples in ways they hadn’t before.
What you will need:
- Apples (1/2 an apple per child)
- Red and green paint
- Forks
- White construction paper
- Green and brown marker
- Paper plates
Directions:
- Cut your apple in half, being careful to cut straight down the middle. If the apple isn’t cut straight then it will be more difficult to stamp in the paint evenly.
- Once your apples are cut stab your fork into the uncut portion of the apple so the cut potion is on the bottom. The fork will act as a handle for the apple stamps so the kids have something to hold onto (I found the apples were too slippery and too large for the kids to pick up the first time I tried this activity).
- Put your red paint on a paper plate and then put the green paint on a separate plate.
- Holding onto the fork handle, stamp your apple into one of your paint colors.
- Stamp the apple onto a piece of white construction paper and then lift the apple straight up to avoid paint smearing. Repeat in the various colors until you have enough apples stamped on your paper. I used one half apple for each color and had the kids rotate colors, that way each apple stayed with one color and the colors didn’t get mixed up.
- Once you are done stamping, allow the paint to try and then with your brown and green markers draw stems and leaves on each apple.
- And that’s it! So easy! This activity went by quickly because you can only fit so many apples on the paper, and the kids ended up not being satisfied with their amount of turns. I grabbed a big piece of cardboard and let them go to town stamping as much as they wanted, that way we got some pretty pieces of art work, yet they were able to still have more fun.
Happy stamping!
