This past weekend, we were the lucky recipients of a huge box of freshly picked organic apples. Its become applepalooza around here! We're making apple bread, applesauce, apple pancakes, and today a fun new art project: apple prints.

My daughter had a great time doing this, although she always loves it when we get paint out. It only took a few minutes to prepare for, and she spent quite awhile printing several pieces of paper. Here's how to do this fun and simple project.

Cut the core out of an apple. Save the side pieces for snack time.

Cut the core piece in half and remove all seeds.Dip the core in paint and stamp it onto paper. For best results, use just a thin layer of paint. Decorate your whole paper with the fun flower shaped print.

Looking for some fun books about apples? Here are some of our favorites.

Apples, Apples, Apples is the story of a rabbit family who goes apple picking and is packed full of interesting facts about apples. It includes a recipe for applesauce, an apple song, and is the source for the apple print idea we tried today.

How do Apples Grow is a non-fiction book that teaches all about (surprisingly enough) how apples grow. It includes labeled illustrations of the flowers, and the information is presented in a clear and easy to understand format.

Ten Red Apples is the rhythmic story of farm animals who take turns eating apples from a farmer's apple tree. It's a great book to practice counting backwards from ten, and kids love the rhyming text.