It is the perfect time of year to start thinking about all things apples, and we've come up with a fun apple play dough surprise activity that helps with cutting skills as well as counting and fine motor skills.
What you'll need:
- apple coloured play dough (red and / or green)
- beads
- pipe cleaners
- child safe knives
This is such a simple activity but has many educational benefits for the kids and they have a lot of fun doing it. I started by making the play dough apples for the kids so that they would be a surprise the first time around. I used shop bought play dough but if you've got a bit more time you could make up a couple of batches of our favourite Kool Aid Play Dough in red and green. I rolled the play dough into small balls and hid different quantities of beads inside each one to look like apple seeds and then put a piece of pipe cleaner in the top to look like a stem.
The children were very excited when I brought the surprise play dough apples over to the table and let them each choose one. I then gave them each a wooden knife to then cut into their play dough apple and find out what was hiding inside. It's a great opportunity for them to work on their cutting skills using a knife, especially now as we're approaching time to start school and they will have to be cutting up their own lunches. It's a great way to learn how to cut without any of the pressure.
Once they cut into their first apple they discovered the beads, and I was very happy to hear Ethan say 'these look like apple seeds!' I then asked them to count how many seeds were inside their apple and to search to be sure that they had found them all. They repeated this with all of the apples that I had made them, excitedly telling me how many seeds were in each one.
When they had finished, Ethan decided that they wanted to make apples for each other next and got to work rolling the play dough into balls and hiding the beads inside themselves. They then exchanged apples and continued the fun for ages. It was a really fun and easy way for them to work on their cutting skills whilst cutting the apples open as well and fine motor and hand strength in moulding the play dough.
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This post is part of a Kids Activity Blog Hop all about fun with apples, check out these fantastic ideas!
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