It is my turn for the craft of the week. When ever I think of September, I think of “back to school” and “apples.” Before homeschooling…I used to teach Pre-K and had a lot of fun with apples. Our craft is to make apple trees! This craft allows the kiddos to get painted on, tear up paper, and use glue.
Welcome to God’s Canvas where it is all about God’s creations.
You can begin with the story of Creation in the bible and remind your children that everything God made is good. Look around the room and find some things that God Made vs what “man” has made… God made you. God made everything on us and knows every line in our hands. Look at your hands.. look at mommy’s hands, look at brother or sisters hands. They are all different, yet perfect to God. Let’s make a craft with our hands and show them to God!
Materials you need: Large drawing paper, glue, a paint brush, red and brown paint (tempera~washable) and green construction paper. I used a piece of tin foil to put my paint on.
First you paint your hand and arm and press firmly on your paper to create a tree trunk.
Second, you take the green construction paper and tear into little pieces for the leaves.
(Tearing is a fine motor skill and needs to actually be taught to three-four year olds..fingers together, thumbs together, tear downnnn, tear downnnn)
Help them remember to go down with the paper by emphasizing the word down.
Next is glue control.. ( we all love this one… not a puddle of glue… but dots of glue) This is great too for eye hand coordination and fine motor control…dot, dot, dot, dot, etc…
Glue all of your leaves on and around your tree trunk.
Lastly, press your thumb into the red paint and “dot” your thumb to create apples on the tree.
You will get to have a special hands-on project. This craft is geared towards the littles but can be elaborated on by the olders with more details. The older ones can look up the different apple trees and even do copy work at the bottom of the artwork to focus on God’s creation.
In addition to a craft on an apple tree, this is a great week to buy a few various apples and slice them up for a taste test. Make a graph of the family’s favorite apples.
God's Canvas 
That’s a great craft!! I can’t wait to do this with my little ones although I’ll probably wait until October.
Oh, this looks like so much fun! :))
I know what we are doing tomorrow!!!
How cool to use your whole arm…never considered that before…thanks for the great idea!
You make me want to pull out my construction paper, paint, glue…
This really does look like a fun, messy, really enjoyable project and so very timely — THANKS for sharing it (and the littles are adorable!)
Oh, I love it, so perfect for our chilly mornings at table time, thank you so much for this little person friendly craft!!! BLessings!
This is the CUTEST craft ever! Love it!