Today is apple harvest at our house
And it reminded me of a post I wrote
Three years ago
I am reposting it here
With links to some other autumn apple ideas
And even more appley ideas to come
In the week ahead
We have A LOT of apples!
September arrives
Autumn falls
Apple harvest begins
We are very lucky to live in the heart of rural Kent
Our garden is full of blossom in the spring
Fruit in the summer
And in autumn we get busy with our treasures
Making apple juice and cider
Eating delicious apples straight from the trees
Autumn is also a time
For new routines and fresh ideas
For us
Means a new focus for our messy and sensory play
This week we have been playing with apples
Yesterday Ami from Beebies came to play
And we worked through a series of apple inspired activities
With my four year old twins Esther and William
We played inside and outside
Using all our senses
Our imagination
And developing both fine and gross motor skills
We started with a sensory apple orchard
I made Esther and William one each in a medium sized baking tray
I filled the trays with porridge oats
We then added ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg
It smelled delicious
Good enough to eat
And Esther had a lovely time
Mixing all the ingredients together
We then added red and green pom poms
To be the apples
And we asked Esther and William what creatures we might find in the orchard
In autumn
After discounting giraffes and dinosaurs
We started to think along the right track
Rabbits and robins
Squirrels and moles
Hedgehogs and badgers
Foxes and deer
Esther and William love small world play
And were happy for ages
Feeding the animals
Letting the animals roam the orchard
Placing and organising the apples
We let them enjoy this free play
And they loved it
When they were starting to show signs of being ready to move on
I gave Esther and William each some tweezers and an empty bowl
They explored the sensory tray with the new accessories
We then had a race to see who could move all their apples
From the orchard to the bowl the fastest
Esther loved this activity
Her fine motor skills are better than William’s
She was able to concentrate and move the pom poms
Using the tweezers with accuracy, control and speed
William got frustrated that he was not able to harvest his apples
As quickly as Esther and so we returned to free play
Until he had calmed down
When they were again ready to move on
I showed them a picture that I wanted them to complete using their pom poms
It needed apples to be placed in a tree and the letter A to be collaged
I gave them each a spatula and some PVA glue
William worked hard to put red pom pom apples on his tree
And green pom poms on his letter
Esther added green and red pom poms to the tree
And chose to collage her A with scented oats
This was a lovely idea that I had not thought of
And she really enjoyed making a mess while working away
Once the pictures were complete William had had enough
But Esther returned to her small world play for ages
And I have kept the trays for more sensory play today
Our third activity was outside
I wanted Esther and William to paint a tree
An apple tree
We have lots of apple trees in our garden
So with guidance from Daddy as to which ones he was happy for us to paint
We headed off with our chosen colours
To our designated tree
I am not sure who enjoyed this activity more
Esther and William
Or Ami and me?
With brushes and rollers and a range of shaped sponges
We began to paint our tree
A rainbow apple tree
Much like the Calafant model we had made a few days before
But this time we were outside
Painting a real tree
Developing our gross motor skills
And breathing in fresh autumn, country air
It was good
It was fun
Esther and William were soon painting anything and everything they could find
They decorated old fallen logs with colourful handprints
And picked and painted the apples themselves
This was a great way to extend our autumn apple sensory play
And to take our play outside
For more ideas for apple and autumn play you can follow the links below
Crab Apple Bubble Dough
Apple Art
Autumn Tracks
Autumn Leaves
Going on a Leaf Hunt
Please do keep an eye out for more apple and autumn crafts and play
Coming soon!
Ahh! How adorable. What a lot of fun you have had. What great activities x
Oh these are lovely ideas! We have lots of apples at the moment from various people who have given them to us. Love fresh apples, this is a lovely time of year.
Nat.x