All About Apples

{ Set the apples, in their cups, in a warm, dry place for about two
weeks. To protect the apples from dust and bugs, loosely wrap
squares of cheesecloth around them. As the apples dry, students can
squeeze them to mold different features on their faces, such as long
noses, or pointy chins.

2 After the apples have dried completely, remove them from the
cups. (The apples should remain on the craft sticks.) Then invite
children to create and decorate their Johnny Appleseed puppets:

{ Wrap a pipe cleaner around the craft stick and bend each end to
become the puppets arms. Glue on yarn for hair. Add clothing and
accessories such as a shirt, pants, and seed sack made from fabric
scraps, and a cooking pot hat made out of construction paper.

Literacy Link
Display the apple-face puppets. Then invite children to write a detailed
description of their puppet. For example, My apple-face puppet has
black eyes and a red shirt. Collect the descriptions, mix them up, and
give one to each child. Challenge children to match the description to
the correct puppet.

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Help children learn about the
Harvest Scarecrows life and times of the real
Instead of Johnny Appleseed puppets, children can make scarecrows. Johnny Appleseed (John
Provide paper raffia straw for children to poke inside the sleeves and Chapman) by reading Johnny
neck of the scarecrows shirt and pants. They can use fabric scraps for Appleseed by Reeve
patches and other decorative features. Lindbergh (Little, Brown,
1993). Afterward, invite
children to use their Johnny
Appleseed puppets to act out
some of Johnnys adventures.

Quick Crafts: Apples, Pumpkins & Harvest Deborah Schecter, Scholastic Teaching Resources
15
 All About Apples
Apple-Print Banner
Literacy Link
Discuss different sayings
about apples with children,
such as You are the apple of
my eye and An apple a day
keeps the doctor away. Invite
children to include an
apple saying on their
banner. Theyll also have
fun making up their own
apple sayings!
16 Quick Crafts: Apples, Pumpkins & Harvest Deborah Schecter, Scholastic Teaching Resources
Children explore printmaking with apples to create
colorful banners for their classroom.
M A T E R I A L S
{ newspaper { bulletin board paper,
{ apples cut into 12- by 20-inch
knife (adult use only) sheets
{
{ tempera paints and { wire hangers
brushes { stapler
1 Divide the class into
small groups. Give each
group several sheets of
newspaper, apples that have
been sliced in different
ways, and a few different
colors of tempera paint with
brushes.
2 Invite children to brush paint on the flat surface of a piece of apple
and use it to print on the newspaper. Let them experiment to see the
different effects they can make. Tell children not to dip the same piece of
apple in more than one color of paint.
3 After children have practiced, ask them to think of a picture they
would like to make that has to do with apples. Let children share
their ideas (apple pie, apple tree, bushel basket filled with apples, and so
on). Then have them practice printing their picture on newspaper.
4 Give each child a sheet of bulletin board paper on which to print
their picture. When the pictures are dry, help children create
banners by stapling one end of their paper around a hanger, as shown.
If the banners curl up, tape a few pennies to the bottom, on the back.