Egg Carton Apple Tree Craft and Fine Motor Activity for Kids

Egg carton crafts are a great way to reuse your recyclable materials. This Egg Carton Apple Tree Craft is a fun craft that doubles as a fine motor activity for younger children. Toddlers and preschoolers will love picking the apples and transferring them into the basket.

If you want to make your Fall themed lessons a breeze, then check out the Fall Activity Pack. It’s filled with math and literacy centers, fine motor activities and arts and crafts templates. All of which are aligned with preschool learning standards. Check it out today.

Disclosure: Adult supervision is required for all activities at all times. Some of the links provided in this blog are affiliate links. I will be paid a commission if you use this link to make a purchase.

More Fall themed Arts and Crafts to try

Getting creative with your kids is always so much fun, especially during the Fall season when the cold weather or a rainy day keeps us inside more frequently. If you’re looking for more Fall crafts, these easy ideas are sure to inspire you.

For more ideas, take a look at these 100 Easy Fall Arts and Crafts for Kids.

Materials Needed

A set of 12 egg carton cups
Red yogurt tops or red pom poms
Green and brown paint
Scissors
A pen
Hot glue or glue sticks

To make this egg carton tree, you’re going to need an egg carton that has a flat lid, not one with holes in it. If you don’t have one of these handy, don’t worry. Just grab a regular cardboard box (like a cereal box) to use instead.

How to make an Egg Carton Apple Tree Craft

Make the top of the tree

1. Take your 12 egg cups, and cut it into three sections.

The first step of this fun project is to cut your cups into three different sections. Two of these sections are going to consist of two cups, still joined together. The last section is going to consist of 8 cups (2 rows of 4), all joined together.

You can see the black dotted lines in the picture above, which shows you where to cut.

2. Move the two sets of 2, to the top and bottom of the set of 8.

Arranging the egg cup sections like this gives a roughly circular shape. Which is perfect as the top of the apple tree.

3. Glue them together.

I cut small slits in the side of the egg carton cups, creating a flap that I then folded over and glued to the other cup. You’ll be able to see these flaps in the white circle of the picture above.

In hindsight, doing this step this particular way is a bit tricky for little hands. Especially if your toddler or preschooler want to make the apple tree all by themselves. Instead, I would recommend gluing all of the egg carton sections down onto a separate piece of cardboard or thick construction paper.

The additional piece of cardboard at the bottom can also act as a background, which is also an easy way to help to make your whole craft more sturdy.

4. Paint this section green.

Use green paint to decorate this section of your apple tree. This is a wonderful opportunity to let your kids use their imagination to create whatever kind of tree they like.

While I used acrylic paint for this little project, you don’t have to. Use whatever kind of paint that you already have on hand.

Make the bottom of the tree and the basket

5. Take the lid of the egg carton and divide it into 3 sections.

I’ve labeled these sections A, B and C in the picture above. You’ll see that:

Section A is roughly square, containing one end of the lid.
Section B is just the other end curved of the lid.
Section C is the middle section of the lid that is left over.

6. Cut along the lines.

When you cut, make sure to keep the curved lip of the lid, because you’re going to need them later when you glue your basket together.

7. Glue sections A and B together to make the basket.

This step is optional. If you do not want to make your own basket, you can always use a small bowl for the fine motor instead.

8. Draw a tree trunk outline on section C.

9. Cut out the tree trunk and paint it with brown paint.

Putting it all together

10. When your paint is dry, glue the top of the tree to the trunk.

Once again, this is easier if you have a sturdy background to use. If you do not have a piece of cardboard to glue the whole tree down onto, don’t worry. Just glue the top branches of your tree truck to the bottom section of your tree top.

11. Place your apples in the middle of the egg carton cups.

I used red yogurt pouch lids for this activity. However, you can also use red pom poms, or scrunched up pieces of red paper as apples instead.

12. Enjoy playing.

How to Play the Apple Transfer Activity

Doing the apple transfer activity is easy. Simply remove the red apples from the egg carton apple tree and place them in the basket (or bowl).

This part of the activity is perfect for kids aged 18 months and up. However, if you’re doing this activity with preschoolers you can always make it more challenging, by giving them a set of tongs or tweezers to move the apples instead of just their fingers.

Once you’ve collected all of the apples, all you need to do is move them back again.

If you want to add in some extra learning, then this is the perfect time to count the apples as you go. This will help children learn to count up to 12 as they play. If you want them to count to higher numbers (such as 20) then use lots of apple pom poms instead, and don’t worry if your tree doesn’t have enough space for all of them. Your kids will still learn and have lots of fun without everything matching up perfectly.

What You’re Learning

Creativity

Art projects are a great way to use your imagination and then use that idea to create something. This is important not only for artistic pursuits, like painting or music, but also for problem solving. Which is an essential life skill that everyone needs to develop.

There are so many ways that children can make their apple tree unique. They may want to try:

Using 2 egg cartons to make a very large tree.
Use different colors, creating a rainbow apple tree.
Using the individual egg carton cups to make a whole lot of singular apple trees, resulting in their own apple orchard.

Fine Motor Skills

Fine motor skills refer to the small muscles in the hand and fingers. Developing these skills are important in being able to write when the kids go to school, as well as being able to complete tasks independently. (For example, dressing and feeding themselves).

Using pens and scissors, as well as picking up the apples are all going to help young kids develop fine motor skills in a variety of different ways, such as: