The best part of an apple theme in preschool is baking with apples! And when it comes to baking, my preschoolers are all in! The apple sauce muffins that we made were super kid-friendly and easy enough for my 3 year-olds to help during each step of the recipe. The muffins were delicious too!
Affiliate links provided for your convenience.
After a quick search on Pinterest, I found this recipe that uses only 3 ingredients. My preschoolers were so excited that I was going to let them use knives to cut up apples!
Each preschooler got their own paper plate with peeled apple pieces on it. Earlier in our circle time I demonstrated how I would use a knife to cut, which side faces down, and how to hold the apple piece in their hands so it doesn’t move.
My 3 year-olds rocked cutting their apples!
We cut way more apples than the recipe called for, so they each tossed some apples into the bowl and then they got to eat the rest!
During the measuring of the apple sauce for the muffin recipe, we used different math skills. We talked about how a spoonful of apple sauce compared to the 1 cup of apple sauce using the terms more and less. We used counting skills and simple addition. The class decided together when it was time to stop adding apple sauce to our measuring cup because we had reached the measurement we needed.
After all the ingredients were in the bowl, the preschoolers took turns mixing the ingredients in the bowl. The batter was scooped into the muffin holders and put into the oven.
The muffins smelled delicious and it seemed to take forever for them to cool down to be ready to eat!
Baking our muffins was successful with 3 year-olds (as well as my 4, 7, and 9 year-old at home) because we broke down the steps into mini goals which allowed them to help with each step!
Each child got a turn cutting apples, even it it was a smaller amount than if only one person was making the muffins. And mixing the muffins by hand worked out well with multiple children helping!
The end result when baking and cooking is getting to eat the food when it is complete! But the skills used while making the muffins included many preschool, kindergarten, and early elementary skills that strengthen fine motor (handwriting!) muscles and work with literacy and math concepts.
Our fine motor skills included: cutting, gripping the knife and whisk, pinching the apples, scooping, and stirring. Oh, and don’t forget taking off the muffin holder gently before eating the muffins!
Kid-Friendly Cooking Supplies!
Wow, I’m really impressed by how age appropriate you made this activity. A lot of times when I’m looking for ideas for my preschool class I’m constantly saying, “Nope. Too easy. Too complicated. Mostly teacher prep.” But i can see myself using all your teachable moment opportunities and the children will stay engaged. Thanks for the post!
I’m so glad to hear that Jessica!!