Busy Siblings Corner
Apple Art

By Heather Kempskie & Lisa Hanson
 

We know they’re good to eat but they’re also fun to play with. Make your own apple stamps to create your own deliciously-fun art.

Materials         

Apples

Knife                                                               

Popsicle sticks                        

Washable Tempura paint

Paper plates                            

Sheets of white paper                                      

Yogurt

Butcher paper

Crayons

Cut the apples vertically in half. With the flat side down, vertically insert a Popsicle stick in the center of the apple. Your children can use these homemade “stamps” to make paintings. Pour paint onto paper plates, then have your children dip the apples into the paint and gently press them onto paper.

Baby

Take your baby’s hands and explore an apple half together. Let her smell and touch the fruit. If she is 6 months or older and eating dairy, you can place some yogurt on her highchair tray as edible paint. Closely supervise her as she makes her own apple swirls by pushing the apple around in the yogurt.

Toddler

Show your toddler how t use the stamp by holding the stick, pressing the apple onto the paper, and then lifting it up. Or instead of stamping the page, she may choose to use the apple as a paintbrush. Let her do so.

Preschooler and School-Age Child

Your preschooler and/or school age child can make their very own apple tree painting. Lay a large sheet of butcher paper on the floor and encourage them to use crayons to create a tree outline, including the branches and leaves. Then they can add the apples to the tree using their apple stamps. How many apples does their tree have?

Parent Tip

Teach your kids this old proverb: An apple a day, keeps the doctor away!

Excerpted from The Siblings' Busy Book. Copyright 2008 by Heather Kempskie and Lisa Hanson. Reprinted with permission of Meadowbrook Press, www.meadowbrookpress.com. Available in bookstores nationwide.

For more sibling fun, visit www.busybookseries.wordpress.com.