The story of Johnny Appleseed provides lots of opportunity for making a variety of puppets and play-acting the tale. Johnny Appleseed is the first puppet that comes to mind, but participants can also make tree puppets, worm puppets, and seedling puppets. Participants can even feel free to make a play theater for their Johnny Appleseed performance that includes apple painted curtains and a rising and setting sun.
Make beautiful prints by slicing an apple, dipping it in paint, and pressing it against paper. Carve into the apple's cut surface to create new shapes or dipping in apple into a different color paint and adding it onto a previous print. If you have access to large sheets of paper, create an entire landscape using apple prints as building blocks. Creating an apple forest out of apple shapes is just one way to explore this simple technique.
This project plays with the idea of Johnny Appleseed walking through fields with his seed sack spilling out apple seeds as he went. Participants lay a large sheet of paper onto the ground. This sheet of paper acts as an empty field. Next, painters dip their paintbrush into paint that sits at the edge of the paper and walk around the sheet, dripping paint onto the ground as they go. Imagining paint droplets as seeds, painters should walk carefully and avoid stepping on freshly planted paint drops.
Aside from planting apple seeds, Johnny Appleseed was dedicated to wearing humble clothes and only using objects that were available to him through thriftiness and inventiveness. Any project that involves recycled or found materials can work well to explore the simple living philosophies of Johnny Appleseed. Use scraps and tatters from recyclables, old clothes, and other scraps to create something useful. Some ideas include : patchwork scarves, cardboard house slippers, and milk jug planters.