Apple Learning Activities
Hands-On Play For Toddlers And Preschoolers
Fun Apple Themed Activities For Early Learning
Over the past few weeks we have done a few very simple apple themed activities I thought I would put all together for you. We did not do them all at the same time. Liam’s attention span is getting considerably shorter instead of longer for his age, so I was trying to just put together some learning activities he could accomplish without too much struggle! I am hoping you will find one or two or maybe even all of them as inspiration for your own apple themed activities!
1. Measuring and graphing worms!
I had these cool worms from a counting set but pipe cleaners cut to different lengths would work just fine too! I had Liam work on putting them into order by size. He has difficulty with sizing lots of items so I let him do some trial and error with the placement. It is pretty self-correcting! We have a small measuring tape for him to use as well. He also measured each worm and grouped them according to their measurement. This was a nice activity to work on proper mechanics of a measuring tape! Next we chose a worm from each size and used glass gems to measure their length. Finally, we graphed the worms by color. This was our first introduction to graphing! I drew colored worms on the bottom of the paper and explained that we wanted to see which color had the most worms and which had the least. This activity was lots of hard work for Liam but he found it pretty interesting.
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2. Patterning with threading
We used a pipe cleaner as a worm and red and green unifix cubes as apple pieces to work on patterns as well as fine motor skills. I told him the worm was eating pieces of apple, so he Liam made munching sounds as he threaded the colors! Very cute but a couple of times he had to try again with the pattern because he was so fixed on the munching aspect!
3. Mini sensory play with letters
I have this awesome red plastic apple. A true find at a 2nd hand shop. I filled it with white rice and Aa letters. There were four each of the capital and lower case letters for him to sort with tweezers. He did this simply but it still took direction to put the letters right side up or to put in the right group. A quick activity but no open-ended play as I had hoped with the rice!
Sometimes, when all else feels like too much, we have to go back to basics! What do you do to change your plans if your child’s attention span is limited on a particular day? We keep it short and simple and always have a back up plan!
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More Fun Apple Play And Learning (click on photos)
Kirstylee says
I really love that patterning activity with the pipe cleaner and cubes. It’s such a simple activity, but you adapted it perfectly to your theme. My kids would love making munching sounds, too. 🙂
Missy says
We have an annual Apple Festival every fall when we pick apples. Your ideas will make a great addition to next year’s Apple Festival! I’ve pinned it so I can remember 🙂 Thanks for sharing!
When my kids are having a lot of trouble paying attention I sometimes just scrap all my plans and find something extra fun on Pinterest to do with them. (You know those activities that look like they would be a lot of fun but just don’t really fit in with any of your regular plans. That’s when I go to those ones.)
I found your post on the Bee Crafty Kids link-up.
Carrie says
Great activities!! Thank you for sharing at Sharing Saturday!
Ashley Wells says
The learning benefits of preschool games for toddlers and preschoolers have been well documented.