Apples are being harvested right now.

Fall is a good time of year to be teaching about apples.

The local farmer’s market are bursting out of their boxes with so many varieties.  

Honey Crisp, Red Delicious and a personal favorite – Jonathan Apples, to name a few.

We decided to create our own market stand to sell pretend apples and other products made from apples, create an apple orchard and make apple pie.

Running an Apple Orchard pretend play

Activity Ideas to kick off Apples Theme

To kick off our center we cut up three different apple varieties and let the students sample each one, during snack time. 

We labeled each variety and asked the students to write down their favorite.  After everyone provided input, we made a simple graph and talked about which variety was the class favorite using math words like – which had the most, and which had the least, more than, and less than, etc. 

We also used words to describe what we saw and what we tasted. We saw red, green, and yellow apples. Some were tall, short, small and fat.  Some were crunchy, tart, sour and sweet.

Another activity we did during large group time was talk about some of the tasks associated with apples that corresponded with the dramatic play center with real photos.

The tasks encouraged for play included , picking apples, sorting apples, buying and selling apples, and making apple pie

Apples Dramatic Play Center

For the setup I made three stations:

1. Apple market where the students buy and sell apple goods
2. Apple Orchard where students can pick apples from trees and sort into baskets (red, green and yellow)
3. Apple Pie making Station where students can mix ingredients and assemble into a pie.

Begin by collecting materials that could be used for props. 

• Apple products that can be sold in the market (applesauce, juice, cider, apple chips)
• Cash register with play money
• Styrofoam apples from the craft or dollar store
• Tan felt (cut into a pie crust)
• Pie tins
• Plastic bottles/containers for pie ingredients (cinnamon, lemon juice, margarine tub)
• Toy roller pin and pastry brush
• brown, tan, yellow and white pom-poms (pretend pie filling, sugar and butter)
• mixing bowl and spoon
• Green and brown butcher paper for the apple trees in the orchard
• Straw hat, flannel shirts and straw hats for dressup

Apple Market Stand Setup

Create signs to hang at the market

Stock your shelves with apple products, and

Set out your toy cash register

Apple Orchard Setup

Make trees out of butcher paper.  Tip – make the trees no wider than your laminator.  That way they can hold up to kids tugging off the apples and be used for future years.

Make puffy apples with apple graphics (red, green, and yellow) and colored paper backing.  Stuff with paper towels and staple closed.

Attach the apples with Velcro stickies and their corresponding backing to the trees.

Place 3 baskets near  your orchard with labels (“Red Apples”, “Green Apples” and “Yellow Apples”)

And have fun watching the students pick and sort apples

Apple Pie Making Setup

Gather your pie making props

Make a recipe card with visual instructions that kids can follow to make the pie

 If you’re interested in learning more about setting up your dramatic play center into an orchard, market and apple pie kitchen you can get all of the ready made printables, at my store.