Fingerprint Apple Trees - Preschool Art

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.

A piece of white paper has a brown paper trunk glued on and many red, yellow, and green fingerprint apples. Two hands use their index fingers to add more fingerprint apples. A white paper plate with red and yellow paint sits next to the paper.

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 finished finerprint apple trees piece of art: a piece of white paper has a brown paper trunk glued on and many red, yellow, and green fingerprint apples on it. A white paper plate with red, green, and yellow paint sits next to the paper.

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

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Paint
Brown paper – you could even use a grocery bag
White paper
Red paper (optional)
Glue

A torn rectangle-ish shape of brown paper is glued onto the center of a white piece of paper. A paper plate with red and green paint sits next to the paper.

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 completed fingerprint apple trees art (a piece of white paper with a brown paper trunk glued on and many red, yellow, and green fingerprint apples on it) is glued onto a larger red piece of paper for a frame. A paper plate with red, yellow, and green paint sits next to the paper.

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.

The colors for fingerprint apple trees: red, yellow, and and green paint on a white paper plate.

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!

A piece of white paper has a brown paper trunk glued on and many red, yellow, and green fingerprint apples on it. A white paper plate with red, green, and yellow paint sits next to the paper.

Frequently Asked Questions

What age is this recommended for?

Any that can safely enjoy the materials for the activity.

Why do you have the kids rip the paper for the tree tunks?

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.

What type of paint do you use?

I used BioColor paint, but you could use any of your favorite paints for this project!