Hands on Apple Activities

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Apples are one of my favorite themes to teach during the fall months! Apple activities are a great way to incorporate science, math, cooking, and art into your lessons! Plus, it’s a fun way to introduce alphabet sounds since most kids know that a says “a” like apple!

Whether in the classroom or teaching in your homeschool this year you can incorporate these fun, hands-on, interactive units all about APPLES!  Read along for resources, activities, and ideas!

Apple Activities

Hopefully you live in an area where you can go apple picking with your family.  What kind of apples do you prefer โ€“ red or yellow or green? Tart or sweet?  What do you do with all of those apples? 

The obvious answer is to eat, cook, and bake!  Some of the most common ideas are apple pie and apple crisp, but what about apple muffins, apple nachos, apple chips, and apple shaped rice krispie treats?  How about making some cinnamon or apple scented playdough or apple slime?

Have you ever made crock pot applesauce? Itโ€™s so easy โ€“ add apples, a bit of water, cinnamon, sugar, and dash of lemon juice to the slow cooker.  Stir it, turn it on, and wait 3-4 hours (low) or 6-8 hours (high).  Easy peasy!  Apples will be on the mind while itโ€™s cooking all day long and your house smells so yummy.  This would be a great time to add some fun interactive apple-related activities. 

Math Apple Activities

Here are some easy ways to incorporate some math at home.

  • Count how many apples you have.
  • Sort the apples by size.
  • Graph the apples with various categories โ€“ color, size, quantity, etc.  This apple activities for fall resource incorporates graphs and glyphs (symbols). 
  • Make a small pile of apples and count them.  What if you add one more?  Two more?  Take two away?  Etc.
  • Make apple patterns with sizes and colors. 
  • Measure the circumference of an apple with a piece of yard or string and a ruler.
  • Gather the proper amount of apples for an apple recipe.
  • How many ingredients are in your apple recipe?
  • Measure ingredients for a recipe.  What if you double that recipe? 

Make that crock pot applesauce.  Add this fun little poem thatโ€™s easy to remember: Peel an apple, Cut it up, Cook it in a pot, When you taste it, You will find, Itโ€™s applesauce, Youโ€™ve got.

Science Apple Activities

You can also add some science experiments to your apple unit. 

  • Try some sink or float experiments with both the apple itself and the seeds.  The apple activities for fall has a couple of these experiments in there.
  • Apple tasting โ€“ probably a favorite activity for everyone!
  • Learn the parts of an apple โ€“ seed, leaf, stem, peel, core, flesh. Add this fun poem so kids can retain the information quickly (to the tune of Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes):
    • Flesh, skin, stem and leaves; stem and leaves
    • Flesh, skin, stem and leaves; stem and leaves
    • And in the core are tiny apple seeds
    • Flesh, skin, stem and leaves; stem and leaves
  • Learn the life cycle of an apple – seed, seedling, tree, bud, flower, and fruit. Make a paper plate craft with a cut out window for one of the elements of the life cycle.  Or make a mini life cycle booklet.
  • Make a STEM inspired apple structure.  Take chunks of apples and connect them with toothpicks.

Art Apple Ideas

Add in some art to make your apple day or week or unit even more fun. 

  • Paint with your apple.  Cut an apple in half, dip it in paint, and make apple prints.  Stab the apple with a fork for little hands and easier handling.
  • Did you know if you cut your apple in half horizontally, there is a star in the middle (usually)? Now you can make star prints with paint. You can even add mini chocolate chips or sunflower seeds to your print for seeds.  Hereโ€™s a fun poem for you:
    • Take an apple round and red
    • Don’t slice down, slice through instead
    • Right inside it you will see
    • A star as pretty as can be.
  • Make some paper plate apple crafts โ€“ paint a paper plate red, cut a slit, add a green worm sticking out of it.  There are so many ideas out there!
  • Hereโ€™s a super easy craft: take red construction paper and cut into one inch strips.  Punch a hole in each end of each strip.  Then gather all strips at one end and bring opposite ends together.  Fasten all ends together with a brad, then fan out the strips until itโ€™s shaped like an apple. Add in a leaf and stem and youโ€™ve got a 3D paper apple.  You can also do this with orange construction paper for pumpkins. 

More Apple Discovery

Donโ€™t forget to add in some of your favorite books.  Dr. Seussโ€™ 10 Apples Up on Top, Apples, Apples, Everywhere by Robin Koontz, and Amelia Bedeliaโ€™s First Apple Pie by Herman Parish would be a great start.  There are hundreds of books out there!

You can also do a book or introduction to Johnny Appleseed.

Donโ€™t forget to visit an apple orchard.  Sometimes there are tours that show how they make cider.

Hereโ€™s one last poem that your homeschooled kiddos will love:

  • Way up high in the apple tree
  • Two little apples smiled at me
  • I shook that tree as hard as I could
  • Down came the apples
  • Mmmmm they were good!