Where do apples come from? What is an apple? How does a tree grow from a seed? By cutting open an apple, a whole world of possibilities and endless questions can arise for a child. If you’re curious how to lead them down this road of discovery, read on. Be sure to check out the painting with apples after the science portion because your child will not want to miss making a picture to display on the fridge. These activities are a part of an entire week’s worth of lessons all centered around the theme Aa is for Apple.

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Do you have an apple orchard in your backyard?

Most people don’t. I grew up on a farm; my parents had an apple orchard and almost every fall we would harvest the apples. I naturally picked up on the life cycle of an apple, what an apple tree needs to grow, how the tree changes with the seasons, weather conditions that could harm the apple harvest, how to bake an apple pie, can applesauce, and much more because I listened to the conversations my parents had pertaining to their apple trees. 

My boys unfortunately do not have access to an apple orchard throughout an entire year to observe. Conveniently, we simply choose the best and nicest looking apples at the grocery store and place them in a basket on our counter once home.

If I want to open this world to my boys, I need to plan it. Whether that means planning a trip to a local apple orchard during harvest season, sitting down with them at our dining table to cut open an apple and talk about it, read books about apples and orchards, or maybe all of the above! I need to have plans in place. 

How in depth you take this activity can depend on the age of your child and their interest level. Younger children, sticking to naming the basic parts of an apple will be enough. Whereas, with older kids they may have more questions. If you’re not sure of the answer to a question, look it up! Your child will observe a valuable life lesson: we seek and search for answers to questions we do not know.

Science: Dissect an Apple

Begin by cutting the apple in half. Ask your child if they know where the stem is and the seeds are. Prompt them by pointing to a part and asking them “What is that called?” Each of my boys, at the age of three, can usually find and name the stem and the seeds but that’s all. I helped them name the rest. 

The important parts are the stem, skin, flesh or pulp, core, and seeds. 

If their interest is still engaged, ask them to count the seeds. Since you probably have at least a couple apples for the art at the end of the lesson, you can now ask them if they think all apples have the same number of seeds and then proceed to cut open a second apple. Have them count and compare. 

Allow time for them to ask questions or prompt them with some of your own extension questions, such as “what is your favorite food that uses apples?” or something a bit more complicated, “why do apples have seeds?” Here are 12 extension questions to help get your started. You can also download this along with the labeled parts of an apple printable at the end.

Art: Use Apples in a Beautiful and Artistic Way

After you are finished dissecting your apples you can now prepare the paint. When I do this activity with my boys I enjoy using blue construction paper (the sky) with red, green, and yellow tempera paint (different apple variety colors). 

Place each paint on the same plate. Your child’s natural mixing of the colors makes this very pretty. Demonstrate painting onto the apple’s flesh with a paintbrush. I’ve found this is better than dipping the apple in the paint because it keeps the paint from overwhelming the stamping process. Once the flesh of the apple is covered, show your child how to place it on top of their paper and lift off. Leaving the imprint of a half of an apple. 

Help them with the amount of paint and lifting the apple half off but allow them to experiment with placement, different apple halves and quarters, colors, etc.

My boys usually stamp 2-3 papers and then we hang them on our wall to dry and display. 

Further Exploration of Apples

I love combining these two activities together because science and art are already naturally connected. We learn about something we encounter on a regular basis, ask questions about it, and then use it in a unique and artistic way. And that’s only the beginning! If you’d like to combine this activity with an entire week’s worth of lessons that includes more activities, coloring pages, and books that are all about apples click here, Aa is for Apple.

Click here for the entire Letter of the Week curriculum for preschoolers.

To download the free printable: Parts of an Apple Labeled and complete list of extension questions to ask your child, sign up for the newsletter below.