Apples Apples Apples

(Owen, Kaylie, Ryan & Addi shaking their apple shakers)

It was my turn to host play group again this week. We had a lot of fun with an Apples theme. Last week my friend Megan did a dinosaur theme, and the kids loved it, so she gave me some websites with lots of themed ideas on it. I found TONS of great ideas. We made apple shakers out of 2 paper plates painted red and stapled together with kidney beans inside; apple cinnamon air fresheners (mix equal parts applesauce and cinnamon...creates a dough-type consistency...use cookie cutters to cut out shapes, then let them dry out on a cookie sheet for a few days); we stamped apples dipped in paint then glued real apple seeds in the middle after the paint dried; we colored 3 or 4 apple worksheets; ate apples with a dollop of peanut butter and drank apple juice for snack time; read "Ten Apples Up on Top" by Dr. Seuss; sang apple songs; played musical instruments; made our very own apple trees out of construction paper and paint; and played with toys. It was a very busy and fun 2 days. The kids really enjoyed painting again. Unfortunately on Tuesday (which is when I had all my painting activities scheduled) it was raining outside, so I braved having painting inside. I covered the table in brown paper, had a drop cloth on the floor, and a bucket of soapy water nearby. They did pretty well. I am still impressed with how clean they all are.

The kids love music time. Their favorite part is when we get out the bucket of instruments (all of the mom's for play group combined all the musical instruments we had into a tupperware bin especially for play group). Owen LOVES beating the drum and Ryan LOVES playing the recorder. Addi and Kaylie like to try out all the instruments.

Painting the plates for the apple shakers.

Here are the prints we made from halved apples. I cut 2 apples in half and let them dry out over-night (or tried to...Daniel came into the kitchen and saw apples on a plate, so he helped himself before I knew what he was doing), then we dipped them in paint and pressed them onto the paper. On Thursday, we went back and glued real apple seeds in the centers.

Picture on the left: I made each child their own "Apples" book (the cover is patterned after Dr. Seuss's "Ten Apples Up On Top") with all of their coloring, copies of the apple songs we sung, the apple prints, and pictures I took of the kids. 

Picture on the right: I had the trunk and branches of the tree already glued on. Each child then glued on the grass and animal hole. Then they cut and pasted pieces of green construction paper for the leaves. Then they dipped their finger in red paint and "dotted" it to make it look like apples. As you can tell, Addi liked to smear her paint around...the dots you see are ones that I did trying to demonstrate to her how to make her apples...she wasn't too interested. Owen was the best "apple dotter"...he took his little finger, dipped it in paint, then very aggressively dotted about 20 apples on his tree. It was pretty entertaining.