Apple Tree Play Dough Invitation

Do you get to go apple picking in your area? We would love to go apple picking. Unfortunately we live in an area where there are no apple trees, so we have to make do with our own creative ideas. This apple tree play dough invitation is our little twist on on apple-inspired loose parts play and “apple picking.”

Apple Tree Play Dough Invitation

FIND ALL OF OUR APPLE ACTIVITIES IN OUR PRINTABLE LESSON PLANS

FOR HOME PRESCHOOL AND PRESCHOOL CLASSROOMS.

Materials

Red, yellow, green and brown play dough-We added a bit of apple pie spice to our red and brown play dough to add a touch of scent.
Twigs
Leaves
Jumbo Tweezers (affiliate link)

Setting Up the Play Dough Invitation

Gather your materials and place them in a kid-friendly tray. If you’d like, set out a mat or tray to make the work space easier to cleanup.

I love seeing how kids approach play dough invitations. With this invitation my youngest created the tree trunk out of play dough and then added twig branches.

Next she layered in leaves.

She finished by rolling red play dough balls and adding them to the tree. (Later she made yellow and green trees, but she reminded me that they don’t all grow on the same tree so she couldn’t mix the colors.)

Once she was done creating her tree I encouraged her to use the tweezers to pick the apple trees. This is excellent fine motor practice! She put them all in a small basket and counted how many apples she had made.

Extension Ideas

Allow your child plenty of time to create freely, but if you’d like to incorporate some additional skills you might:

Discuss the parts of a tree using the vocabulary (roots, trunk, branches, leaves, fruit)
Roll and add-Roll a number cube and add that many apples to the tree
Roll and remove-Roll a number cube and remove that many apples from the tree
Make “apple” patterns using the different colored apples you’ve made

Are you teaching an apple-inspired theme soon?

GET A FULL WEEK OF APPLE THEME LEARNING AND PLAY

Save time and get right to the playful learning with our printable lesson plan sets. Each set includes over 30 playful learning activities related to the theme, and we’ve provided different versions for home preschool families and classroom teachers so all activities are geared directly toward your needs.