Apple Sensory Play Ideas

Through the years I’ve shared a lot of different fall themed activities, including pumpkin sensory activities, pumpkin STEM and apple STEM. If all of that isn’t enough, here are some apple themed sensory ideas for the classroom or at home.

Doughs of all kinds are classic sensory material for kids of all ages, and there are lots of options when it comes to adding apple. You can go with the classic no-cook apply playdough from Kindergarten Worksheets and Games, which uses conditioner to make a soft a fluffy play material.

Or try the apple cinnamon play dough from Play to Learn Preschool, which is more of a classic dough consistency and perfect for making play pies and cookies. And you can make cloud dough/moon sand with an apple pie twist with this recipe from Little Bins for Little Hands. They also have a fun recipe for applesauce oobleck that would be a lot of fun to make and play with.

Any of these would be great as part of a sensory bin, but another fun thing to try is dried chickpeas dyed different colors to look like apples. It’s easy to do and you can use them year after year. Get the tutorial from Active Littles. Or you could use oatmeal (Fantastic Fun and Learning) or rice (Frogs and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails) as a base for your bin.

For very little kids, you might want to do a painting project and sensory experience in one with a sensory painting bag. This one from Views from a Stepstool has an apple theme, and little ones will love squishing the paint around.

Older kids can paint and do printmaking with apples, whether whole apples, halves or slices. Check out the ideas at Fun-A-Day to get started.

Apple-themed snacks can round out a day of apple sensory play. If kids can have peanut butter, this can be as simple as apple slices with peanut butter and different toppings like sprinkles, granola or chocolate chips. Or cut the apple into discs to make apple “doughnuts” like these from Beyond Cereal. Other easy options include baked cinnamon apple chips (Carrie’s Experimental Kitchen) or no-bake cinnamon apples (The Honour System).

Easy Apple Crafts for Kids

Apple STEM Activities for Back to School

Apple Tree Math Activity

Apple Themed Cutting Practice

I did a post earlier this year with activities and ideas for teaching the alphabet, but a lot or learning letters and recognizing them just has to do with seeing them and working with them a lot.

That means coloring, tracing, identifying things that start with different letters and more.

One way to reinforce the letters is through little activity books like these cute printable alphabet books from Life Over Cs.

These are available for free when you subscribe to her newsletter, and I’d say that’s well worth it if you have a little one (or a group of little ones!) working on the alphabet and letter recognition.

Each mini book includes a collection of things that start with that letter to color, color and read with words that start with the letter, tracing the letter, finding the letter in a grid and other coloring pages with objects that start with that letter.

These little books are super useful reinforcing the different letters and giving kids different activities related to the letters.

If you do a letter of the day or letter of the week you can use a new book for each one, and then keep the copies in your reading center or in a basket where kids can look at them again.

And of course you can add in all the other letter activities you like, go on a scavenger hunt for items that start with that letter, read alphabet books, practice writing letters in rice or with pompoms or playdough or whatever sensory activities you like.

You can grab the free printables when you enter you email address at Life Over Cs, and check out her other great alphabet resources and activities while you are over there.

Do you have favorite activities for teaching letters to kids? I’d love to hear about them!

[Photo: Life Over Cs]

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