Cotton Ball Apple Tree Craft

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Cotton Ball Apple Tree Craft is a fun and easy fine motor apple craft for preschoolers and kindergartners. It is a great activity to do this fall!

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How to Make A Cotton Ball Apple Tree

Grab a piece of cardboard. You’ll want it to be large enough to fit the tree and have extra room around it to help to keep the mess down.

Use your paint sticks and draw and colour in the trunk of the tree. Then use a pencil to draw the outline of a tree. Hand the piece of cardboard to your little one to do the rest.

Hand them a squeeze bottle of glue or glue stick and invite them to trace the top of the tree with the glue. Also have them squeeze glue all inside the tree. Then have them stick cotton pad in the glue to create the leaves of the tree.

Next have then stick cotton ball in between the cotton pads. The cotton balls with become the apples. Show them how to do their first.

Decorating your Cotton Ball Apple Tree

If this is the first time your little one is using an eye droppers I suggest practicing using them with just water before adding the food colouring.

COTTON BALL APPLE TREE

Once they get the hang of squeezing and letting go to draw the water up the eye dropper you can add green and red food colouring into bowls of water.

COTTON BALL APPLE TREE

Invite your child to using the eye droppers to colour the cotton balls apple tree! Let them squeeze the red coloured water into the cotton balls to create apples and green water on the cotton pads to create the leaves.

Trust me I know how toddlers and preschoolers can be so if they don’t want to stick to this colour formula no worries! Apples can be green! You can say something like “Oh wow I see you made your apples green and your leaves red, this must be a Granny Smith tree in fall!. They can also colour their apples, yellow!

COTTON BALL APPLE TREE

Containing the Mess

This is indeed can be a messy activity. The good news is that the cardboard will catch and absorb most of the mess. Make sure to use a piece of cardboard large enough to hold the apple tree with some room on the ends to catch any run off.

COTTON BALL APPLE TREE

Another way to contain the mess is to cover your table in Kraft paper or larger pieces of cardboard to protect it as well. Also dress your child play clothes as the coloured water may stain.

COTTON BALL APPLE TREE

Total Hit

Cotton ball apple tree was such as fun activity! The best part of the activity was when my daughter figured out that she could reuse the water by sucking it up out of the cotton balls!

COTTON BALL APPLE TREE

My kids are 7 and almost 3.5 years old.

COTTON BALL APPLE TREE

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Looking for more Fun Spring Crafts & Activities? Check out these fun ideas:

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Supplies

(This post and list contains affiliate links for your convenience. If you make a purchase using one of these links, I may earn a commission. Please visit my disclosure policy for more information.)

  • Cardboard
  • Cotton balls
  • Cotton pads
  • Glue
  • Pencil or Sharpie
  • Eye Droppers
  • Bowls
  • Water
  • Food Colouring

WILL YOU TRY COTTON BALL APPLE TREE FOR KIDS? PIN IT FOR LATER!!

COTTON BALL APPLE TREE

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