Toddler Apple Tree Craft

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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