Warm apple pie. Is there anything better? Homemade apple pie has been a part of my family for generations. I’m excited to pass that on to my kids with this easy apple pie with kids activity.
My grandmother has baked apple pie for as long as I can remember. It’s one of my fondest childhood memories. If she lived closer, I have no doubt she would have joined us for this fun homemade apple pie activity.
I wish I was a recipe developer. I am always amazed at the amazing recipes people create and I have come to terms with the fact that I just don’t have it in my blood.
Easy Apple Pie Activity
For this easy apply pie activity I tapped into two great homemade recipes. Mini Apple Pies chose to use a store bought pie crust, but we used the Perfect Pie Crust Tutorial to make a delicious pie crust that we much prefer over store bought.
I really like the idea of making muffin tin apple pies. The extra mini apple pies are easy to wrap up, store, or freeze. The kids loved making the circles and decorating their own mini apple pie. Just an easy and fun way to make apple pie!
After gathering all our ingredients, we started to make the pie crust. I love the idea of using hands in cooking. Neither of my kids love the idea of sensory feelings, but they really enjoyed mixing up their dough. I divided the recipe into two bowls so each of the kids had their own dough to work with. The pie crust recipe is VERY easy to divide up.
Once the kids got the dough mixed, we rolled everything out between sheets of wax paper. This made it really easy for cleanup and to keep the dough from sticking to the counter.
We used Mason jar bands to cut out circles. Then pressed each circle in one of the muffin cups. I have a nonstick muffin tin, but would suggest dusting your muffin tins with a little flour. Our apple pies ended up sticking just a bit.
Also, don’t forget to poke holes on the bottom of each pie crust before freezing the dough.
Both of my kids really love cleaning practical life work. While we waited for our dough to chill, Avalyn decided to clean off our work area. Samuel helped me gather the ingredient for out apple pie filling.
We set up a little assembly line to core and cut the apples. I find it’s easier for preschoolers to cut apples with an apple slicer if the apples are cut in half first. After Samuel cored the apple, he gave the pieces to Avalyn who chopped them and added them to the bowl. It’s such a great feeling to see siblings working together to finish a task!
My kids are very comfortable in the kitchen. Avalyn is 3 and her knife of choice is a small paring knife. It takes some time to help children to feel comfortable with using a knife like this, but practice is the best learning tool.
Samuel really enjoys measuring the ingredients. It’s one way I bring math into our everyday life!
The kids filled each of the mini pies with the filling. Then we used the extra dough to make patterns and special faces for the kids.
This easy apple pie activity was a HUGE success! We added a little ice cream to the side for a fun dessert after dinner.
Apple Books
Before you jump into the easy apple pie, you may enjoy reading a little about apples and where they come from. Here are some of our favorite apple books.
The Apple Pie Tree is a sweet book showing the life cycle of the apple tree, how birds enjoy using the tree and the role of weather and bees. My kids love the pictures and the warm apple pie at the end!
Apples, Apples Everywhere! really helps kids understand apple harvest. My kids liked learning about how apples are stored. We talked about how we get those apples from the store or the farmers market in the fall.
Take an around the world grocery trip with How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World . This is a fun book where kids learn from all the adventures of a baker gathering ingredients.
The Apple Pie That Papa Baked is an all-time favorite! This lyrical book is a sweet story of a father making an apple pie treat for his daughter. Kids love the repetitive nature of the book and the illustrations are beautiful.
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You had me at apple pie! I have fond memories of making apple pie, apple crisp and applesauce with my family. We had a HUGE apple tree in our backyard and were always making something with the harvest. While I didn’t enjoy picking them up off the ground, or the bees!, it was so much fun making (and eating!) the treats. Your pies are very cute and I will have to go over and check out some of those books! Thanks for the great suggestions.
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I love that you included books about Apple Pie at the bottom of your post – brilliant!
Thanks so much for participating in the 31 Days of Kids’ Kitchen Activities!
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Oh they look delicious! I haven’t made a pie in years – I’m adding this to the to do list to bake with the kiddos.
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These little apple pies looks so yummy! 🙂 Thank you for linking up at “A Little Bird Told Me” link party. You have been featured on Mama’s Happy Hive blog. 🙂
These look like so much fun to make. My kiddos always love helping with the baking and cooking, this one is being added to our list especially with apple season on the way. These would make a great Thanksgiving dessert too, and how much fun would family have eating something the kiddos made? Pinning so I don’t lose it.
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