"Ten Apples Up on Top" Stamping

My son's nursery is decorated in Dr. Seuss characters, so how could I pass up the opportunity to do a few Seuss-related activities in celebration of Dr. Seuss's birthday? While looking through activities my toddler would likely enjoy, I came across this apple stamping and counting craft on the Kiboomu site. It goes along with the book Ten Apples Up On Top. I was fresh out of apples, but I did have one leftover potato that worked just as well. I cut the potato in half, poured some red paint in a bowl, and grabbed a sheet of legal size white paper. To say that Baby Bear was intrigued by me holding a potato and asking him if he wanted to paint would be an understatement; I couldn't get the materials around fast enough to satisfy his curiosity! I began by showing Baby Bear how to use the potato as a stamp. Then, I helped him stamp the rest of the "apples" in a column onto a paper. Once we had our column of apples, I handed Baby Bear another sheet of paper to do his own stamping. He loved it! When the red paint was nearly gone I poured in a little green, and Baby Bear helped me mix to make brown so I could add a dog. Once it was dry, I added googly eyes, drew a nose and mouth, and wrote out the numbers with a sentence describing the amount of apples. Baby Bear likes "counting" with Papa Bear and I (he makes noises in a rhythmic pattern as we count), so this activity was just right for him.