Kindergarten Apple Art Project

A few weeks ago I went to do an art project with my son's kindergarten class. His teacher heard that I was an artist, and asked if I would come in and do a project with the class once a month, and of course I jumped at the idea! Anything to get me in his classroom, and involved! I see myself in the future being psycho, control freak, room mother, but in a GOOD, fun way!

My demo apple for the kids

I did some research to find the perfect apple themed project. There were lots of options, including apple prints, you cut an apple in half and make prints on paper with different colors of paint, to cute hanging apple cores, to Johnny Appleseed projects. I choose a project where the kids make an apple out of a paper plate, by painting them red, adding a pipe cleaner worm, green leaf and brown stem. I also decided to draw some eyes, noses, and mouths, and let the kids add those too! I had the paper plates, so I bought the pipe cleaners, and printed out copies of the sheet of facial features.

The day of the project, we passed out the plates and had the kids paint the apples red, yellow, or green. This painting process was extremely messy and took a whole lot longer than I expected (I forgot to add in dry time). I must add that it is a whole lot different doing an art project with 20 kids, rather than 2 kids! The teacher and I rushed around to help the kids with putting their pipe cleaner worms through their sopping wet apples, and to help them select facial features and get them started on cutting them out. By the time they had these cut out and glued on it was time to go home, and we did not have time to add a leaf or stem. That was ok, though I came back the next day and did that and hung up the apples in the hallway!

My son's finished project hanging on our fridge.

It seems like the kids had fun, although next time I may avoid paint, unless that is the ONLY thing we will be doing. I sort of have a better understanding now about how involved a project should be, and the time I need to add in for gluing, drying, and helping! I loved how all the apples turned out really different, sort of like the kids themselves. Next time I will take a photo of the projects hanging up all together. I want to find a really great Halloween project for the kids! Something with skeletons, I am thinking. I should start doing my research now!