**This post about 10 apple fine motor activities includes affiliate links.**
We’re all about apples in our classroom in September, so it’s no surprise that I’ve got 10 apple fine motor activities for you to use in your classroom! So many of my students have fine motor deficits. That means I’m always putting together fine motor activities for my students to use and refine their skills. These apple activities fit a range of students in my classroom. I especially love how low prep these activities are. Check out these 10 apple fine motor activities for your classroom!
1. Apple Chain
I LOVE linker chains and use them a ton in my classroom. Since it is September and we’re just getting started in our classroom, this is a simple activity that I can expand for a variety of skills. I prep this activity by tuning these different color apple pages through a laminator, cutting them out, and adding a hole punch to each end. Then I’ll grab a bunch of plastic linkers and my students will work on their fine motor skills by chaining the pieces together. There are tons of ways to differentiate this task. Some students just work on linking while others are making patterns, identifying apples by specific colors, or counting out apples to make chains of a specific length.
2. Dough Apples in the Tree
Rolling and shaping play dough is a great way to get little hands moving in the classroom. I print out this apple template (I just slip it in a sheet protector, but you can laminate it if you want) and grab some play dough. Students then roll apples to add to the tree.
3. Orchard Shape Cutting
Cutting out simple shapes is part of fine motor progression that we’re working on in our classroom. These shape cutting activities from my scissor skills boxes are some of my favorites. Students cut out circles, squares, and triangles and complete two different extension activities. They can either work on matching shapes or extending patterns to keep the activities fresh.
4. Apple Sticker Border
Recognizing and creating shapes is super important for fine motor development as well as the pincher practice our students get from peeling stickers. That’s why this activity is tons of fun. I put together an apple outline template and gave my students some simple dot stickers. Students peel the stickers off the paper and place them out the apple outline to form an apple.
5. TP Tube Apple Sort
Ok, this one is seriously cute! I saved some old toilet paper rolls and cut out a simple green tree shape and glued on a few pom pom apples. Then I inserted it into the TP tubes by cutting a small slit on the sides. I placed the apple trees into a bin with a ton of red, green, and yellow poms. Then I gave my students some tongs and had them place the poms in the tube of the correct tree.
6. Apple Put In Task
I had quite a few apple shaped erasers on hand and I know some of my students are working on put in tasks in the classroom. I put together a quick apple tree for my container because my students LOVE to feed things for their put in tasks. After I place both the erasers and the put in container in a basket, my students practice feeding apples to the tree. Tip: I tend to make the hole students are placing the item into snug so they have to use some force to get the item into the container.
7. Orchard Snipping
Snipping is an important part of fine motor progression. I put these activities together as part of my scissor skills boxes. I print and prep strips of pictures and students use scissors to snip each piece off of the strip. Then I use two different extension activities. My students can sort the different pictures or they can use the pieces they’ve snipped to practice their counting skills.
8. Hole Punch Apples
Using a hole puncher is one of my favorites to build hand strength. I run off one of my blackline apple templates and students color the picture. Then I give them a red piece of paper and they use a hole puncher to punch holes. Then they glue their apples to the tree. Tip: Looking for a fun adaptation for students who can’t use a hole puncher yet? Grab an apple shaped push punch like this one and your students can cut out apples to glue to their tree.
9. Apple Number Stickers
We’re working on number recognition with a bunch of my students right now and this is a really fun activity! I put together a quick apple tree with number spaces on them. Then I grabbed some red dot stickers and wrote the same numbers on the stickers. My students peel and match stickers to the dots on the tree.
10. Worm in the Apple Threading Toy
No lie, prepping can get overwhelming in the beginning of the school year, so being able to buy something and being ready to go is a huge plus. I found this super cute apple toy with a caterpillar you string through the holes. Threading the string through the holes is great fine motor practice for my students.
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