Apple Week

This week was all about apples!  I didn't expect it to be very fun, but I was very wrong!  There are so, so, so many crafts and activities for preschool that center around apples -  I waaaaaay over planned for the week and didn't even finish all of the fun things I wanted to do with the girls.  I'll save it for next year!

The first activity we did was make apple suncatchers out of coffee filters.  The girls colored on the filters with markers, sprayed them a few times with some water and once dry we glued them to an apple shape and hung them on the windows.   They were not only cute, but very pretty! (See the results at the end).

While we waited on the filters to dry (it was fast), I let the girls take the middle cut out of the suncatcher frames and make an apple with "bites" taken out of it in the shape of their first initial.  They tore bits of paper and glued it to their letter. (Again, the results are at the end)

 

Our apple core craft combined snack time, counting, fine motor and a little about what an apple's purpose is in nature.

We ate the apple, broke the core in half, pulled out and counted the seeds and talked about were the apple comes from and what would happen if we didn't eat them, etc. etc.  I don't expect them to retain any of this, but rather to lace together different skills and stories so that their vocabulary, skill sets and sweet little minds grow and learn something.    Plus, it gives us something to do and look forward to each day!

We took a paper plate, cut off two ellipses from each side, painted them green and the rest of the plate edges red.  Then we glued three apple seeds to the remaining white of the "core" after eating the apple while the paint dried.  Both girls loved looking inside of the core and counting the seeds.  Maybe next year we will plant one or two!

Our family was in charge of simple decorations for church fellowship dinner this month, so we incorporated our theme into our week.  The girls helped me stamp apples onto the decorations and I let them have one strip of burlap to stamp however they wished.

The decorations turned out soooo cute and the girls really liked making them.

We made over twelve centerpieces and one very long bunting for the tables where the food is placed.

Each table had a candle on it with raffia and was surrounded by different kinds of apples.

The girls helped me with the set up and take down at church but I forgot to take pictures.  : (. Maybe we can use them again next year!

It was fun to show the girls that we can use our "talents" to serve others and that God appreciates beauty, so making beautiful things for others to enjoy is good. : )

And what did we do with aaaaaaaallllllll of those left over apples?!  Yep, you guessed it!

Apple pie!  They were so excited!

We read a book about a little girl making apple pie, so it was fun for them to experience that story and use the recipie in the back of the book.

They got their first taste of it while we waited for the "supermoon" to come out from behind the clouds (which it never did).  So, now they don't call it apple pie, but pie moon!  I guess that's because we kept telling C and FL that we were going to eat the pie while waiting for the moon!  So, the you have it.  Pie Moon.  Needless to say, they really liked pie moon and wanted more.

And, as promised, here's how our crafts came out:

Suncatcher, apple core art, letter apple and apple-stamped banner.  For memory's sake, the top picture is all Flora Lin's work and the bottom picture is all of Charlotte's work.  Since I can't keep all of their crafts, it will be fun to look back on these pictures in a few years and remember when.

What a full, fun week!   We will be doing apples again next year (great suggestion, Kerry!)!