Provide three colors of tempura paint - red, yellow and green - to represent the three basic shades of apples. Universal Preschool suggests teachers pre-cut apples in half horizontally before beginning the activity. Show the children the star shape in the middle of each apple half. Children will dip the apple in the paint and stamp the apple onto paper. Allow the preschoolers to experiment with mixing the colors to see if they can create new colors.
Peel the apple skins off the apples prior to this activity. Use butter knives, plastic knives, or popsicle sticks to carve facial features into the apples. Provide bowls of lemon juice for children to paint onto the apple after the carving is complete. The lemon juice will help prevent browning as the carved apples are left out to shrink and dry. Over the course of a few days, the apples will slowly turn into funny, wrinkled heads.
Pre-cut apples into slices approximately 3/8 of an inch thick. Students will use paper towels in an effort to dry the apples before sprinkling both sides with cinnamon. Insert Christmas ornament hangers into the tops of the apple slices and let children tie red or green bows onto the hangers. Collect the ornaments to hang onto a hanger placed in a sunny location. Once the apples are dried, students may hang the apples on a classroom tree or take them home to use as gifts.