For a fun addition to your reading plans or fall activities, have kids create their own tower of red apples with this 10 Apples Up On Top craft! This fun apple activity is inspired by the classic Dr. Seuss book, and has preschool through early elementary children create a lion and tiger balancing red apples on top of their heads, just like the characters in the story.

This book companion activity works especially well during Read Across America week, literacy activities, or as part of a fall unit with apples. Working on this activity will help kids develop basic skills like cutting, pasting, and following instructions. Be sure to check out all our kids book crafts for more fun ways to bring your kids’ favorite stories to life.

Ten Apples On Top Idea

Promotional collage for a Dr. Seuss-inspired “10 Apples Up on Top” kids’ craft, showing paper lion and tiger faces balancing stacks of red paper apples on their heads.

Good To Know

Themes: Apples, counting, Dr. Seuss Week, Fall
Activity: Make a lion or tiger character and stack paper apples on top while practicing counting
Template: Includes free printable animal and apple pieces for a Ten Apples Up On Top! inspired craft
Ages: Preschool through 1st grade
Time: 20–30 minutes
Skills: Counting, number sequencing, cutting, gluing, and fine motor practice

The story introduces the concept of balancing and friendly competition just like our lion and tiger are doing with their apples! Kids will also practice number recognition, counting skills up to ten, and work on their fine motor skills as they carefully cut and paste the pieces together.

This would be a great book accompaniment by simply bringing the characters to life, or even by making it interactive. As the story goes along, the kids can add another red apple each time they do in the story. So grab a few basic supplies, the free template, and your kids for a fun way to combine creating with storytime!

Supplies

Colored cardstock or construction paper
Scissors
Glue
Tiger & lion template (click the “click here to get this freebie” image at the end to open the form)

Click here to see our favorite kids’ craft supplies.

Directions

Tiger Craft

Start by downloading the tiger template and printing it out. Once you have the template printed, gather the materials needed for this fun activity. Get those scissors ready, and let’s help the kids bring this idea to life!

Hands hold a printable lion craft template showing outlined pieces for the head, mane, and eyes.

First, to make the tiger encourage your child to glue the inner ears to the outer ears.

Hands attach a white inner-ear piece to an orange paper tiger face with black stripes.

Next, guide your child to take the mouth piece and glue it in the middle of the face, just above the bottom stripes.

Hands position the tiger’s white muzzle piece onto the center of the orange paper face.

Now, help your child to glue the nose to the top of the mouth lines.

Hands attach a black nose over the tiger’s white muzzle.

Place the eyes below both of the eyebrows and glue them in place.

A hand places one large cartoon eye onto the tiger’s face.

Finally, glue the apple shapes stacked on top of the tiger’s head.

Hands stack red paper circles above the completed tiger face to represent apples balanced on its head.

Lion Craft

Start by downloading the lion template and printing it out. Once you have the template printed, gather the materials needed for this fun activity. Get those scissors ready, and let’s help the kids bring this animal to life!
Take the face and glue it in the middle of the lion’s mane.
Next, take the eyes and glue them beneath both of the eyebrows.
Finally, glue the apples stacked on top of the lion’s head.

Orange paper tiger face craft with large eyes and black stripes, topped by a vertical stack of four red paper circles representing apples.

Paper lion and tiger face crafts, each topped with a vertical stack of four red paper circles representing apples.

Fun Children’s Books

If You Give A Mouse A Cookie – This classic children’s book is still a favorite of kids today! It’s a silly story that kids will love and parents will remember!

Can I Be Your Dog? – This is the cutest storybook about a dog named Arfy who’s a homeless dog. Follow his journey to finding the right family to adopt him!

The Kissing Hand -This sweet book will not only have kids captivated but may also help with separation anxiety. We definitely recommend adding this one to your collection!

Orange paper tiger face craft with large eyes and black stripes, topped with a vertical stack of four red paper circles representing apples.

Book Crafts For Kids

Grumpy Monkey Craft – If you have any grumpy monkeys, turn their frowns upside-down with this fun puppet. They can bring Jim, from the Grumpy Monkey, to life and use as a prop during story time or pretend play. Kids will have so much fun making Jim, and there are so many creative ways to play with him afterward!

Grouchy Ladybug Craft – Kids can choose between a grouchy or friendly version of the ladybug with this fun idea. It’s a lot of fun and a great way to keep their little hands busy. This is a great activity to do in conjunction with the beloved children’s book, The Grouchy Ladybug!

Collage of four animal crafts: a brown monkey paper bag puppet, a handprint moose, red-and-black ladybugs on green leaves, and two yellow spotted animal paper crafts.

Paper Bag Put Me In The Zoo Craft – Another favorite book, Put Me in the Zoo, inspired this paper bag puppet! Kids will create Spot who shows off all he can do, and kids are able to learn colors, too! It’s the perfect idea for both younger and older children to enjoy together!

Moose Handprint Craft – This adorable keepsake would be a great addition to story time when reading If You Give a Moose a Muffin! Kids will make a moose out of their own handprint and our free template!

As your kids balance fun with our ‘Ten Apples Up On Top’ idea, enhance the experience with our delightful printable Dr. Seuss hats, perfect for any Seuss-inspired activity!

Children’s Book Activities For Kids

After kids have read the book about an unlikely pair – The Snail and the Whale – they can kick off some learning fun with our The Snail and the Whale worksheets.

These are great for kids to learn to recognize patterns and letters and expand their vocabulary. Add them to your preschool lesson plans or book-themed resources, and get ready for a world of learning fun!

Bring a favorite book and a favorite activity together with these polar bear color by numbers. They’re a great addition to the fun book, Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You See? Kids will be able to work on number and color recognition when they reveal 3 different polar bear pictures!

Collage of children’s worksheets featuring a humpback whale labeling activity, a polar bear color-by-number page, several completed character color-by-number sheets, and an ocean-themed pattern-completion worksheet.

Bring four different Dr. Seuss characters to life with some crayons or markers and these Dr. Seuss color by numbers! Kids will match the number to the color using the key at the bottom of the page to reveal Horton, Fox, Cat, and Fish. These fun pages are perfect for anyone who loves the Dr Seuss books!

Yellow paper lion face craft with a golden mane and large eyes, topped with a vertical stack of four red paper circles representing apples.

Use this pack of Rainbow Fish book printables to get kids learning after reading the classic, The Rainbow Fish. These hands-on activities are filled with coloring pages, counting activities, matching games, and more to bring the Rainbow Fish to life! They’re perfect for independent work and can be used in a variety of ways!

Did you make this activity with your kids or students? We’d love to feature them on our social media!

For a chance to have your child’s project featured, simply snap a picture of the completed project and post it to our Facebook page, email it to us directly by clicking here, or use #simpleeverydaymom on your social media!

hand holding finished apples up on top craft

5 from 1 vote

10 Apples Up On Top Craft For Kids

Author: Sam

Prep Time: 8

Active Time: 15

Total Time: 23

Get ready for a roaring adventure as we bring the lion and tiger characters from a beloved Dr. Seuss book to life with our 10 Apples Up On Top craft!

Video

Materials

▢ Colored cardstock or construction paper
▢ Scissors
▢ Glue
▢ Tiger & lion template