10 Cute and Adorable Apple Projects

September is APPLE MONTH.  Time to get out all your favorite apple books and start thinking about what apple projects you want to do this year.  

There are so many cute projects on Pinterest it is so hard to pick which ones I have time for.....Here are a couple of my favorites:  

For my Kindergarteners I love making this apple card...

Another Kindergarten favorite is the torn art project.  Some of my students struggle with this project because they want to cut the paper with scissors instead of tearing the paper. However I think the torn paper give the apples the character that makes the project.  

I did this next one with my first graders.  I had them draw the apples and paint them. We cut them out and arranged them on scrapbook paper.  

I think you could do the next project two ways:  1. Stamp out the apples or 2. Have the students draw and paint their own apples. Either way this apple wreath is adorable.  I think this would be great for first or second graders.  The cutting out would be tricky. 

This paper plate apple project would be great for preschool or four year old kindergarten.  It is simple and really you would provide the pieces and the children just glue.  Although this is made of felt I think you could easily do this with card stock.  

This Apple Collage is all made out of scrapbook paper.  This project would be perfect for any age group.  I think the kids would love gluing down the different designs. 

This Bubble Wrap Apple project looks like so much fun.  Just paint the bubble wrap and press it onto paper.  Cut out the apples and decorate.  So simple and cute.  This looks easy enough for any age group.  

This Smily Apple is so adorable as well...and it looks like the kids even cut out some of the pieces. Again a nice simple project for preschool through first grade. First Grade Blue Skies even has more ideas on this page for you.  

This Apple Core project is almost to easy to believe and it is so sweet looking.  It is simple enough for any age group.  

The Seasons of the Apple Tree is a project I have done several times. It was part of a unit I purchased.  It turns out adorable.  I like it because there is such a great science tie in for this project. It takes a little bit more prep work on your part and has more steps then some of the other projects put it is worth it.  It is definitely a five year old kindergarten to first grade project.  

Chinese New Year Idea

I found the cutest book on Amazon a couple weeks ago, Paper Lanterns.  I took a chance and ordered it.  My class enjoyed the book a lot.  The story was about a little boy who studies under the master to learn how to make paper lanterns.  The book was a great tool for discussing author's purpose, setting, characters and events. 

After we read the book we made Chinese lanterns in a variety of colors.  We sponge painted flowers and outlined them with black sharpies.  Next they wrote some Chinese characters on the border.  The project was a lot of fun. The bright lanterns are a joy to look each day.

    

  

Christmas for the Birds

This week I read my students the book, The Birds of Bethlehem.  I found this book on Amazon and I absolutely love the story and the illustrations.  The students really enjoy it as well.  It's fun to watch their faces as they realize this story is about Mary and Joseph and baby Jesus.  They still haven't figured out that almost all I read in December are stories about the first Christmas.  

When we finished the book, we read our Act of Kindness card which was to feed the birds.  The kids were very excited about this idea.  When I told them we were making Candy Cane bird feeders they nearly flipped out.  I found this simple idea on Pinterest (of course.)  It was so easy for the kids to do themselves.  

The only materials you need are red pipe cleaners and Cheerios.  I twisted the bottom for them so the Cheerios would not just slip off and the students did all the work.  We found a small tree by the playground and put our candy cane bird feeders in it.  The kids check on the feeders every recess.  It's hard to see the bird feeders in this photo it was a foggy day so my picture did not turn out good.

Here is a close up photo from Pinterest.

source

Another good book I found on Amazon is The Message of the Birds.  This is an adorable book with the message  of spreading peace in the world during Christmas and all year long.   

My students just love hearing literature with the story of Jesus in it.  I also read the book No Two Alike and we had a discussion about each person being unique and different.  That's how God made us and we should celebrate that!

We finished out the week making a wintery art project that I found on Pinterest.  

Day 1:  We used a scraper and scraped black paint across white paper and we used q-tips and white paint to make the snowflakes on the blue paper.

Day 2:  We torn apart the white/black paper to make tree trunks and glued them down.  I gave each child a 1/2 sheet of red paper and orange scraps to make the birds.  We talked about what shapes we might use to make our birds.  

This one is my favorites.  It was made by KB, she is one of my favorite students this year.   She tries so hard and you can tell that she is doing her best on everything.  I don't know how her birds got so small.  

Organizing Art Supplies

This is the area where I store all my art supplies.  This is not the stuff that the kids can access.  This is the stuff where I gather things for class projects.

 This big cabinet is the construction paper cabinet.  I like to grab the color I want without having to go through a large pile.  I know it takes up a lot of space but this system seems to work best for me.  

Then inside the two big cabinets are all the art, cleaning and science supplies.  I have tried to organize the shelves the best I can.  I have a lot packed in these two cabinets.  I think I am in these cabinets daily looking for something.  

Happy Fish Art Project

happy fish

This week in my kindergarten class we are learning about fish.  We are doing all kinds of wonderful activities.  One new activity that we did this year after reading the story, 

HAPPY, by Mies Van Hout, 

we created our own fish with oil pastels on black paper.

 The children love this book. I think each child had it on their reading log this week.  

It is super easy to read.  The text is very simple and the illustrations are amazing.  

One more thing if you can, please vote for me HERE.  I promised my class we could get an ipad if we win.  Please please help us.  Voting is everyday until April 28th.  Right now we are far behind.  

THANK YOU  Sue Schueller

All About Fish

These beautiful fish were made by my kindergarteners this week.  I just love the colors.  I found this idea on Pinterest and the trail lead me back to the directions at Deep Space Sparkle.  The fish look amazing in the hallway.


I read several books to introduce the project my little ones:

I introduced the project with this book and we discussed the different shapes of the fish. The children painted the fish shapes and background on the first day.

Then on the second day, I read Fish Eyes and we discussed the details, shapes and colors you could add to your fish to make it beautiful.  My little ones got right to work.  When they were finished they outlined their fish with black paint.  

I love the results......Thank you Deep Space Sparkle for sharing.  

Noah's Ark

My little ones made these beautiful watercolors last week during religion class.  It is hard to see but even the fish are swimming two by two.  They are so cute.  It took us a couple of days to make these.  The first day the children used their crayons to create the ark.  We discussed how Noah and his sons made the ark out of wood and nails.  Look at the details.  We read the story:

We discussed on the second day how Jan Brett drew the animals two by two.  We listen to some songs I had bookmarked on Youtube:  http://ckprimary.wikispaces.com/Noah%27s+Ark

During story time we read:

On the third day we used oil pastels to draw the ocean, grass and rainbows.  Then we used our watercolors  to paint the sky.  

I love how they turned out!  For those of you that do not teach in a religious school you can do something similar to this with spring flowers.  

Fresh Fall Leaves Theme

I had the kids sponge paint red, yellow. orange and brown on construction paper.  

Then my friend traced leaf shapes on the other side for me.  

The kids cut out the leaves.

And

A Fall Tree for the hallway.  

My Favorite Art Project

I am so fortunate to have a fantastic art teacher at my school.  

Mrs. D.  does  amazing projects with the children.  This is one of my favorites......self portraits.  I absolutely love these.........each one is really unique and wonderful.   The beans for teeth are so funny.  I hang these up in the front of my classroom and they stay up the entire school year.    

They make me smile each day.