It’s day four of our Fall Invitations to Play series with My Nearest and Dearest, Buggy and Buddy, Play Trains, and Twodaloo. This button apple tree is another apple inspired invitation to play that we used during our recent apple theme.
Today’s Fall Invitation to Play
We talked a lot about apple trees, so I thought these materials might inspire the kids to create apple trees of their own.
FIND ALL OF OUR APPLE ACTIVITIES IN OUR PRINTABLE LESSON PLANS
FOR HOME PRESCHOOL AND PRESCHOOL CLASSROOMS.
Materials
- red buttons
- green buttons
- cinnamon sticks
- large piece of green felt or flat workspace
Ways Children Might Use the Materials
Below is a brief list of skills kids might practice using these materials. However, as I watch kids interact with new invitations I am always impressed by their creativity in using materials in ways that I may never have thought of. This kind of free exploration is one of things I enjoy most about invitations to play.
- Sensory Exploration
- Fine Motor
- Creativity
- Beginning math skills like patterning, counting, sorting and creating basic shapes
- Color recognition
As I mentioned above I thought the kids might create some version of an apple tree, but they didn’t. They all had very different ideas for these materials. Tinker created a house for all her “doggies” (the red buttons).
Big Buddy concentrated for a long time on aligning the cinnamon sticks and balancing the buttons on them.
They may not have created apple trees, but that’s not really important. They did use their own creativity and engage in open-ended play as the result of this invitation, and that was the overall goal.
Note: I was told that touching your eyes after handling cinnamon sticks may cause irritation. We did not have any difficulty with this, but you may want to be sure children wash hands after this activity just in case.
Now that you’ve seen today’s invitation to play, head on over and see what the other members of the series have planned for you. And don’t forget to stop by tomorrow for our last post in the Fall Invitations to Play series!
Apple Orchard Invitation to Play by My Nearest and Dearest
Art Using Fall Colors by Buggy and Buddy
Fall Spice Railroad by Play Trains!
Magnetic Fall Tree by Twodaloo
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.
Help children learn more about apples in a playful hands-on way with the apple activities in this comprehensive set of lesson plans for preschool, PreK and TK classrooms. This apple theme preschool lesson plan pack can be used during the fall, back-to-school time, in conjunction with a fruit theme, aligned with exploring the letter A, etc. Watch this short video to see just a few examples of the types of activities and printables included in this set:
This set includes active hands-on learning ideas and the following printables:
- Apple Number Cards (0-35)
- “Counting Apples” emergent reader
- “I See Apples” emergent reader
- Apple Letters (uppercase and lowercase in both red and green)
- Apple Life Cycle Cards (in color and b/w)
- Label the Apple Diagram (in color and b/w) with labeling cards
- Apple Pattern Cards
- Put the Apples on the Tree Game Mat
- Editable cover and pages for a class apple book
GET YOUR LESSON PLANS
Home Preschool Apple Theme Lesson Plans
Preschool Classroom Apple Theme Lesson Plans
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Darby M
These activities are very creative , instructive and fun for those involved. Thank you
Stephanie
Love this one! Buttons are one of the twins’ favorite things to play with. I know they would love this!
Shaunna
Something about toddlers and buttons! I carry a small container of random buttons in my purse for Tinker to play with when we are waiting at places. She loves it!
Sarah @ How Wee Learn
I love when that happens! It is wonderful that you just let them create – this is something I am definitely working on – I would have so much trouble not suggesting they try a tree! I did an invitation to play (you and your crew inspired me) for play doh apple pie – and it ended up being a parking lot. Oh the creativity of a 3 year old!
Shaunna
How exciting! I love that you were inspired by our craziness. 🙂 I will say that it has been a process for me to learn to sit back and let the play and learning unfold, but you’re right…the creativity is amazing!
Emm
I really like the whole invitation to play/invitation to create idea. I always go into a project with a specific idea (usually not the same idea my preschooler has!). I love the way you just set out the materials and see what they make of it. And even though your children didn’t make apple trees – they both came up with creative ideas anyway! 🙂
Shaunna
Ha! I know what you mean. My kids rarely have the same vision as me, but in many ways the creativity and learning the develop from their own curiosity is so much more meaningful.