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Little Hands Apple Orchard

Handprint apple trees were one of my favorite seasonal crafts as a daycare teacher. It pleased both the kids (painting body parts) and the parents (a craft that they could identify). I had already been planning to incorporate it into our apple theme when our trip to the orchard inspired me to take it up a notch -- instead of creating individual trees, the kids worked together to make their own orchard. I didn't get pictures, but Little Lady made some trees too, and the boys had a lot of fun watching her. When she was finished Mini Man made all his trees.



Then the Buddy filled in all the remaining spaces.  He was quite happy that his trees were the BIGGEST.



He also found a green hand to be quite silly.



We set the trees aside to dry for about an hour and then the boys went to work adding apples.



Our finished product :)


Before I go I thought I'd throw in a picture of what I think is a life saver when painting with little kids; a bowl of warm water and a rag. Having these at the table kept the mess in one area instead of our whole house being turned in to an orchard.

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Comments

  1. LorieSeptember 29, 2011 at 11:09 PM

    Looks like they had a great time! Would love for you to link this up on our fall crawl link party! http://readingconfetti.blogspot.com/2011/09/fall-crawl-link-party-2.html
    Thanks! Lorie @ Reading Confetti

    ReplyDelete
  2. MandiSeptember 30, 2011 at 8:43 AM

    This is such a wonderful craft!!! I love it! They look like they really enjoyed it, too. I might have to get my boys to work together and make one. :) Awesome idea! I would love it if you would stop by my blog to say hi! We made some pumpkin playdough this week that we're really proud of! I'm also featuring a recipe for pumpkin pancakes today! I hope you're having an awesome day!

    Mandi at BBM

    ReplyDelete
  3. ErinSeptember 30, 2011 at 2:56 PM

    That craft is too cute! And the bowl of water is genius! Painting always leaves a huge mess all over our house...we'll have to give the water bowl a shot next time!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Lori @ La-La's Home DaycareOctober 1, 2011 at 7:29 AM

    Those are great! Love the egg carton paint trays!

    Beautiful Apple Orchid. I just visited an apple orchid yesterday.These turned out wonderful!

    Thanks for sharing,
    Lori

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousOctober 1, 2011 at 8:18 AM

    This craft left your guys with more than green thumbs. The trees are so cute!

    ReplyDelete
  6. KellyOctober 3, 2011 at 8:11 PM

    We tried this one out this morning and my little boy - Dexter (3) loved getting the paint all over his hands and making trees with apples! Thanks for sharing :-)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Heather @ LocalfunforkidsOctober 6, 2011 at 8:34 PM

    What a cute craft! I featured this on my blog today. Thanks for linking up with Fun for Kid's Friday! Have a great weekend. : )

    ReplyDelete
  8. Mom to 2 Posh Lil DivasOctober 8, 2011 at 10:48 PM

    so cute and fun! I love seeing all their trees together like that! A keepsake that must be saved for when their hands are so big you have trouble remembering them that small!

    Thanks for linking to the Sunday Showcase & hope to see you again this week!

    Bern
    http://momto2poshlildivas.blogspot.com/search/label/Sunday%20Showcase

    ReplyDelete

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