Fall Fun - Crafting Sensory Caramel Apples!

These caramel apples brought to life by Sarah Grace, preschool teacher over at Beautiful Chaos, are super cute & unique, and would be a perfect addition to your fall crafting plans! Not to mention, they would be easy for your little crafters to create and {depending upon the materials you decide to use} could offer a fun sensory experience.

All kinds of things are used to make/decorate caramel apples these days! Cereal. Sprinkles. Sauces for drizzling. Crushed candies. Nuts. If it's edible and it can stick to the apple, it seems likely that someone has used it to make these fun fall treats! For less mess which, less face it, can be highly preferable, construction paper elements work great!

However, if you're brave and think your kiddos can handle it, here are a few suggestions for decorating/creating a fun caramel apple 'sensory experience'...

• Caramel sauce. Add a bit of liquid watercolor to corn syrup and paint the top of the apple. The mixture is sticky and dries shiny/slightly three-dimensional, mimicking caramel sauce nicely! [NOTE: To get the dipped look and to make sure the color comes through, you could always have students cut the "caramel" from brown construction paper and then paint over top of it with the corn syrup paint!] ... Shannon over at Shannon's Tot School offers a great tutorial for using corn syrup paint.
• Crushed toppings. Use actual food! Crush up colorful cereals {like Fruity Pebbles} or find fun sprinkles. However, we wouldn't suggest using nuts simply because of the prevalence of peanut allergies. The fragrant crafting materials will add another sensory element and, the best part is, if you use the corn syrup paint for caramel sauce it will act as built-in glue! All your kiddos will have to do is scoop and sprinkle!
• Caramel/chocolate drizzle. Add caramel and chocolate extract to craft paint. Place the paint in clean condiment squeeze bottles and invite your kiddos to lightly drizzle the "sauces" over their apple cutouts. While it won't smell exactly like the real deal, it will add a surprising sensory element. Not to mention, the squeeze bottle offers a fabulous opportunity for fine motor building and the results will look great!