# Toddler Apple Tree Craft
> Kids roll cardboard tubes in brown paint to make tree trunks, then squish cotton balls in red paint to make apples. Once dry, the apples go on green paper treetops for a counting game, and the trees stand up on their trunks as a little orchard.
- URL: https://www.funlittles.com/make-an-apple-tree-the-toddler-way/
- Ages: 2–5 yrs · Difficulty: easy · Mess: high
- Time: prep 20 min, activity 30 min
- Works for: one-on-one, small group, whole class · one batch serves about 2 kids
- Skills: color-mixing, sensory-exploration, fine-motor, counting, number-recognition, one-to-one-correspondence
- Cautions: ingestion-risk

## Materials (one batch)
- Toilet roll tubes or kitchen roll tubes, cut into 2 halves (household)
- Green construction paper, cut out as leaves (treetops)
- Brown paint
- Red paint
- Cotton balls (household)
- 1 piece Foil pan (household)
- White glue (household)
- 1 piece Scissors (household)
- 1 piece Black marker (optional) (household)

## Substitutions
- Instead of brown paint: Red and green paint mixed together (What the author did. It's a bonus color-mixing lesson, and kids love to mix.)
- Instead of cotton balls: Red pom-pom balls (Skips the red-paint step and keeps a fluffy texture. Painted cotton balls dry very hard.)

## Safety
- Supervise closely. Toddlers may mouth paint or the small cotton balls, which are a choking risk.
- Use washable, non-toxic kids' paint. Hands and arms get fully covered, so dress kids for mess.
- An adult does all the cutting, including the treetops, the tube halves and the slits.

## Before you start
- Cut out the leaves (treetops) for the trees from green construction paper.
- Cut the toilet roll or kitchen roll tubes into 2 halves.

## Steps
1. Pour red and green paint into a foil pan and let the kids mix it into brown.
2. Roll the tube halves in the brown paint to turn them into tree trunks.
3. Set the tree trunks aside to dry.
4. Pull the cotton balls into smaller balls and put them in the foil tray.
5. Pour lots of red paint on top and squish and roll the balls into apples.
6. Let the apples dry.
7. Stick the dry apples on the green leaves.
8. Number the treetops. Count the apples and match each tree to its number.
9. Adult: cut two small slits in the top of each trunk. Slide the leaves in.
10. Line up all the trees to make an apple orchard.

## Tips
- Part craft, part mess: rolling the tubes in paint made the craft very exciting for them. We even redid the trunks that had been painted with a brush the day before.
- Muddy brown happens a lot when kiddos paint and mix for a long time, so make use of it to make brown paint.
- Make the apples while the tree trunks dry.
- Dried cotton balls become very hard. They can't replace fluffy pom-poms in texture, but my girls loved the process of creating apples.
- How can you NOT do math with apples in front of you? The younger one counted while the older one matched the numbers.
- Readers liked turning the finished trees into a counting activity. (from readers)

## The original post by TurkeyMom (2012)

Our closest apple orchard is about 100 miles away . It is sad that we as a family have NEVER gone apple picking. May be one of these days.. But that did not stop us from doing an apple tree craft. What’s special is we did the toddler way. Part craft - part mess.Our inspiration came from Frogs and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails.

- Toilet roll tubes or kitchen roll tubes cut into 2 halves
- Green construction cut out as leaves
- Brown Paint or Mix Red and Green
- Red Paint
- Cotton Balls
- Foil pan

Before starting, I cut out my leaves for the tree using green construction paper. Since we ran out of brown paint, we decided to make brown. It is super easy to make brown. You would have seen that many of your kid’s messy art projects end up brown. Muddy brown happens quite a lot here too because the kiddos love to paint and mix for a long time. For this project we used **red and green to make brown paint** * color mixing* I poured both the colors in a foil pan and had the kids go at it. Once we made brown, in went on the toilet roll tubes.



Both of the them rolled in tubes in the paint and turned the “tree trunks” brown. This mini messy play made the craft very exciting for them. We even re did the ones Big A had painted with her brush the previous day.While the tree trunks sat to dry, we had to make some apples. Instead of using red pom-pom balls, I used some cotton balls. Made those giant ones into smaller balls

 Again, balls go into the tray and tons of red paint go on top of it.  Once the excited squeals and cheers for the always loved red paint settled down, the girls had round #2 of mini messy play. They made apples with cotton balls and red paint. *Side note: Dried cotton balls become very hard. They cannot replace fluffy pom-poms in texture. But my girls loved the process of creating apples.* We let our apples dry.  Once dry, stick them on your leaves.  Now how can I NOT do math with apples in front of me.We turned it into a number recognition, counting and 1:1 corresponding learning game. The younger one counted while the older matched the numbers.  Next the leaves go on the brown tree trunk with two small slits on the top. There you have your own part messy, part toddler friendly apple tree craft.  Since it was too much fun, we made an apple orchard. Next step is to make a sensory-bin? 

Thanks for reading

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