These easy fingerprint apple trees are fall fun at its finest—adorable, simple, and perfect for preschool hands! The best part? Every single tree looks wildly different and completely adorable.
Why I love fingerprint apple trees
They take one minute to set up.
No fancy materials are required.
Each final piece looks different and is unique to each artist!
I am a big, huge, enormous fan of process art, and I love the opportunity that this allows kids to learn specific art skills and add a lot of their personal touches.
🍎 Related: Fall fun is at your fingertips with this complete collection of the best apple activities for kids.
A quick note about art vs. crafts
If you walked into a typical preschool classroom in August, you’d find apple crafts adorning the walls.
Crafts are often very cute but look identical and are direct copies of a teacher’s sample. With crafts, there typically isn’t room for artistic exploration or creativity.
This project, however, combines some specific instruction and creative opportunities!
🍎 Looking for more apple activities? What do you think of them apples:
Materials
Friends Art Lab is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Read more about these links in my disclosure policy.
- Paint
- Brown paper – you could even use a grocery bag
- White paper
- Red paper (optional)
- Glue
How to make fingerprint trees
We’re going to rip, glue, and print.
Rip: Invite your child to rip a rectangularish shape from the brown paper for the tree’s trunk.
Some kids will make their pieces short and wide, some will make them tall and narrow, and many will be in between. Seeing all the different sizes is one of the best parts!
Glue: Next, glue the trunk onto the white piece of paper.
Print: The best part, making the apples! Invite your child to dip their fingers in paint and add apples to their tree.
🍎 Some kids might like a mix of red, yellow, and green apples. Some might want just one color or two colors. And some might want different colors entirely!
A quick way to make your art feel fancy
Frames make everything feel fancy.
For more people, frames aren’t a realistic thing that they can add to every piece of a child’s art.
BUT a colorful piece of paper also works as a “frame” for kid art!
Simply glue a colorful piece of paper to the back of your child’s finished work, and just like that, it looks and feels fancy schmancy.
Fingerprint apple trees are adorable for fall
Trunks of all sizes!
Trees full of all kinds of apples!
Each piece will be an adorable apple delight, and we can’t wait to see yours.
Have fun!
Frequently Asked Questions
Any that can safely enjoy the materials for the activity.
For an extra layer of fine motor practice! Tearing paper is a fantastic, tricky skill and I love adding any opportunity for kids tearing paper when I can.
I used BioColor paint, but you could use any of your favorite paints for this project!
LEAVE A COMMENT