Spicy Dried Apples to Hang on the Tree

10. Spicy Dried Apples to Hang on the Tree

Index

1. Christmas Crafts for Kids - Animal Shapes
2. Christmas Ornaments for Kids to Make
3. Clove Studded Orange Project
4. Fabric Animal Chains for Christmas Trees
5. Inexpensive Holiday Earth Gifts to Make
6. Make a Hexagon Shape Puzzle
7. Make a Wreath Project
8. Make an Easter Egg Puzzle
9. Make Holiday Paper Chains for Learning Sets
10. Spicy Dried Apples to Hang on the Tree
11. The Story of the Felt Santa Claus - Craft
12. Yarn Tree Ornaments

I love the way apples shrivel when they dry out. Let's take advantage of this to make natural and good-smelling hanging ornaments for the holiday tree. This is a suitable home or school project for kids of different abilities with an adult ready to help if needed. Manipulating the small cloves is practice in small motor development.

Level: 3 and older

Supplies needed:
Apples
Whole cloves
Yarn lengths, 2 feet long each to tie up oranges for hanging

Have a completed clove studded apple set on the work table so the kids can see what the finished ornament will look like.

Give each child an apple.

Place a pile of whole cloves in a plastic bowl in front of each child's work space.

Demonstrate how to poke the skin of the apple with the pointed end of the clove.

The apples can be studded (poked) at random or in lines of latitude or longitude around the fruit and the space in between left without cloves, as the apples will shrink as they dry out. Because the apple skin is thin don't place the cloves up against each other. The cloves should be pushed in along their stem portion with the crown portion left exposed.

Point out the smell of cloves to the kids. Let them know that their apple will smell like cloves when it is done and for a long time afterward when it is hanging.

After the apples are stuck with cloves take 2 lengths of the yarn. Surround the apple in the longitude direction, with the 2 strands of yarn spaced evenly apart. Tie a knot in the yarn at the top of the apple, and then again near the ends of yarn so you have a loop for hanging.

As the apple dries out, it shrinks in size. This shrinking pulls the cloves very close together.

I like to hang the clove studded apples on my holiday tree after they have dried out. This really adds the spicy smell to the room.

Article by Susan Helene Kramer

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email - susan@susankramer.com SusanKramer.com Publishing - http://www.susankramer.com/books.html