Apple coffee filter craft

Apple season is quickly approaching, which means it is a great time to do apple crafts with your kids. This is a simple apple coffee filter craft that results in some beautiful apple artwork through a process called chromatography.

My kids and I had previously done a coffee filter chromatography project. But on this occasion, I thought we would mix it up by trying the coffee filter chromatography craft again using an apple twist.

Note: For more kid-friendly apple activities, see my Apple Unit Study page. 

To do this activity, each kid grabbed a tray with the following materials:

• Coffee filter
• Spray bottle filled with water
• Apple-colored markers (we used red, green, and yellow)

I then invited the kids to use their markers to color in their coffee filters. It is not necessary for kids to fill in every part of the filter for the craft to turn out beautifully, although of course adding more marker at this stage does make for a more colorful apple craft in the end.

Once the kids were done adding color to their coffee filters, they used their spray bottles to get their coffee filters wet.

This part was quite magical for them due to chromatography. Chromatography is the separation of a mixture (e.g., marker ink) by passing it in a solution (e.g., water) through a medium (e.g., coffee filter) in which the components of the mixture (e.g., the various colors that make up any given marker color) move at different rates.

In straight forward terms, what this means is that when the kids sprayed water on their coffee filters, the marker ink began to separate and spread throughout the entire coffee filter in a beautiful process.

We left their coffee filters to dry overnight. Then we cut them to the shape of our apple outlines and taped them to the back for a beautiful finish.

Want a copy of my Apple Outlines?

Add this free product to your cart by clicking the button below!

More apple resources

More apple posts from Gift of Curiosity:

• Apple Unit Study
• Apple Printables Pack
• Apple Do-a-Dot Printables
• Apple taste testing
• Apple rotting experiment
• Dissecting an apple
• Apple sensory bin
• Apple Montessori activities

For more kid-friendly apple activities and apple printables, see my Apple Unit Study page and my Apples Pinterest board.