Fine Motor Apple Alphabet Match
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I love fall! Fall means apples, pumpkins, cooler weather, and outdoor fun. This Apple Alphabet Match incorporates some fall fun into our learning while working on matching uppercase and lowercase letters. It also gives fine motor skills a workout. It is a great letter recognition activity for preschoolers and kindergartners studying an apple or fall theme!
*Pair with our Apple Centers and Activities for Pre-K & Kindergarten!

Apple Alphabet Match
My daughter is really enjoying playing with clothespins in our activities at home right now. She is even offering to help me hang out the endless loads of washing (which she has been doing with the aid of a small step stool).
Opening and closing clothespins is a great fine motor skills activity for young children. The movement gives the muscles in their fingers and hands a really good workout, strengthening them as they play. This will help them with their writing development down the road.
I decided to put our love of clothespins to good use in a fun learning activity for us all with a fall twist!

Supplies and Prep
Start by gathering some simple supplies:
- 1 paper plate cut into the shape of an apple (cut out a “v” near the top)
- 1 leaf shape cut from paper
- 26 clothespins
- Red and green paint
- Black marker
Ahead of the Activity:
To make the apple, I painted the paper plate all over with red paint and then covered the leaf shape in green paint. Once dried I attached the two together with glue and wrote lowercase letters all around the inside of the plate.
I then moved onto the clothespins and painted them green, before adding on all of the uppercase letters of the alphabet using black marker. Be sure that the paint is completely dry before doing this.
Helpful Tip: We painted our clothespins, but you can also find ready-to-go green clothespins on Amazon.
You could of course have the kids help out with the preparation as well. They love painting!

How to Play
This apple alphabet match activity works as an independent or group activity. A child can have a go at matching up all or a selection of the clothespins.
Or a small group of children could take turns clipping a clothespin with an uppercase letter onto the corresponding lowercase letter on the paper plate apple.
RELATED RESOURCE: Alphabet Centers and Activities for Pre-K & Kindergarten

For differentiation, younger players could match up lowercase to lowercase letters to work on alphabet recognition. You could also match letters in your child’s name, numbers, words – there are tons of possibilities for this apple alphabet matching activity!
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