Preschool Apple Activity: Apple Seed Letter Tracing Cards {Free Printable}
Inside: A preschool apple activity for practicing alphabet letter matching and lowercase letter tracing.
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When I think of fall, I picture late afternoon sunlight bouncing off fall foliage. I imagine brisk, cool morning air and fresh hot apple cider. I daydream about apple picking and hay rides, too.
Unfortunately, I live in southeast Texas now.
Our leaves change at Christmas time, and I’ve never seen an apple tree here. When the rest of the U.S. is enjoying cool autumn mornings and warm, lovely afternoons, we’re still sweating it out in the heat and humidity of summer.
I’ll just have to dream…
Preschool Apple Activity
First of all, let’s start this preschool apple activity with a couple of fresh apple read-alouds.
My two newest favorites are the engaging nonfiction book Apples for Everyone by Jill Esbaum, and the fun detective story Apples for Little Fox by Ekaterina Trukhan (affiliates).
RELATED: Back to School Books for Classroom Read Alouds
Once you’ve set the tone, your kids will surely be eager for some apple theme activities. This one is pretty simple . . .
Students will trace the apple seed lowercase letters and then match them to the uppercase letter cards.
Preparation
These cards are super easy for you to prep. Just cut out and laminate them for tracing with a dry-erase marker.
Instructions
When you’re ready to introduce the activity, talk first about apple seeds. Perhaps cut open an apple or two and observe the seeds.
Then, you can point out how these cards have apple seeds in the shape of letters. Won’t it be fun to connect them to form letters!
The simplest way to play is to just match the letter cards and then trace the lowercase letters. The apples come in 3 colors. The matching lowercase and uppercase letters are both on the same color apple, which makes it easier for newer learners.
Apple Literacy Center Ideas
If you’d like, you can add an element of play to use this apple activity in a literacy center, station, or small group. Here are a few more ideas on how to do that:
- Use Velcro® or magnets to attach the lowercase letter cards to a smallish tree bulletin board set (affiliate). Students can “pick” the apples off the tree and match them to the uppercase letter cards.
- Line the cards up in a pocket chart, and provide a little apple-picking basket to put them into as students match the cards. Or, students can line up letters to spell their names or simple words.
- Lay several pairs of cards face down and play concentration with them. When the children make a match they can trace the lowercase letter.
- Add in a fine motor color-matching activity by setting out tongs and a basket of red, yellow, and green pompoms. As students pair up the cards, they then pick out a pompom in the matching color and place it on the uppercase letter. The same setup also works well to practice pattern matching.
Download the Apple ABC Cards
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I can almost feel the cooler autumn weather, sitting here in my air conditioning. We’ve never been apple picking, but we did once visit a peach orchard. We brought back more than we could possibly eat because my kids had so much fun picking.
We made an awesome pie with some of the extra fruit, though.
I know, that’s not the same thing… For now, I’ll have to be happy pretending and imagining with this little preschool apple activity.
Enjoy!
-Heather
Thank you
You’re welcome!