FALL…in Love with Apples!

It’s officially upon us- fall is here, well in most states (sorry Florida folks)! While I do love lazy summer days, fall brings a refreshing change of cool breezes, new shades of nature, sweaters/boots, and pumpkin spice lattes!

For the kiddos that means nature hikes to add to Sean’s growing nature collection, apple picking, pumpkin patch, trick-or-treating, and all the goodness fall has to offer.

This week we kicked off fall with a fun apple thematic unit that will end with a trip to the apple orchard in north Georgia. In the classroom I absolutely loved using thematic units to integrate subjects, apply learning to everyday life, and include fiction and nonfiction books to our lessons.

I headed to some of my favorite blogs and Pinterest  for some fresh ideas and free printables, and filled in the rest with some homemade goodies. This post contains the first 3 days of activities, a later post will contain the last 2 days. These activities are targeted for preschoolers and kindergarteners but can be adapted for younger and older children. I complete the activities with Sean providing assistance as needed.

Skills we are learning and practicing are: cutting, gluing, coloring, counting, measuring, writing, labeling, comparing/contrasting, graphing, reading comprehension, patterns, and investigating.

Introducing the apple:

 

We read Apples by Gail Gibbons and talked about why we label things. I made an easy cutout of an apple shape on red construction paper and a smaller shape on white paper. Glue the white on top, draw a core and seeds in the center, add a leaf and stem. I hand drew some labels and Sean cut and glued them on the apple. We also made some homemade applesauce. I peeled, cored, and large chopped the apples, Sean used a plastic knife and cut smaller chunks, added the cinnamon, and when it was cooked and cooled he mashed it. It was a hit with both Sean and Olivia.

 

 

 

Day 2:

 



 

 

We read Apples, Apples, Apples by Nancy Wallace. Today was my mini scientist’s favorite day, investigation! I found a cute booklet on the teacherspayteachers website, but  I knew I could quickly whip up my own for free. I choose to have Sean measure the apples height and width with legos, pegs, and a tape measure, guess and count how many seeds were inside, and predict and test whether it will sink or float. I hand drew the pictures and stapled a cover page on the front.

 

While we were doing the investigation Sean decided to test the other fruits in our fruit bowl (orange, kiwi, and peach) for size comparison and whether they sink or float as well.

We also completed an investigating apples flip book you can find HERE! Sean colored and cut and as we completed each section I recorded.

 

Day 3:

This was a math focus day. We read the book Ten Apples Up on Top by Theo LeSieg.

I folded a sheet of construction paper into 8 and drew a tree in each box with a random number. I gave Sean some paint and q-tips and he stamped the correct number of apples on each tree. Sean completed this by himself while I cooked dinner but for younger children you could do smaller numbers and count out loud with them while they stamp, for older children you can use larger numbers or write addition sentences for them to solve on each tree.

 

He also completed  an apple  pattern sheet you can find HERE!

 

Sean used the extra paint to paint an orchard, this was one of the first non-abstract paintings he’s done!

 

*Check out The First Grade Parade blog for more great ideas!

 

Still to come:

Venn Diagram comparing apples and tomatoes (cut and paste), apple color graphing, apple taste testing, and making mini muffin tin apple pies.

Busy BODY

Olivia is a very eager learner, and when she is interested in something her focus can be intense for such a tiny being.  Aside from singing nursery rhymes, she has a new interest in body parts. She has been pointing to them when asked for a few months, but has recently been making great attempts at saying them. Her fave book at the moment is called My Nose, My Toes, and Me by Frida Bing. It is a lift and flap book that uncovers various parts of the body.  While we read she always points to her, or my, corresponding body part, and now repeats it herself. She gets so excited and has memorized the book, so she often points to it before lifting the flap.

 

 

                  

 

This week after the reading the story I decided to stretch the story further and add a few activities. Being the diva that she is, she loved looking in her mirror and pointing to the parts of her face on the mirror as I asked her.

We also broke out good ‘ol Mr. Potato Head, always a hit in our home. This was a fun way to see if she could put the parts in the respective areas and then we also got silly creating crazy creations…that’s totally what it’s intended for : ) This is also a great fine motor activity.

 

We sang songs like Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes!

Last, I cut out several pictures of body parts from magazines and gave her the dry erase board with a piece of contact paper taped sticky side up.  She placed her pieces on the contact paper and I simply said what they were while she did it. It created quite a cool collage!

 

I have always had a love for children’s books, and extending the book with fun activities is one of my favorite ways to introduce and practice a skill.

What are some of your kids’ favorite books right now?

Grab a Song

 

 

 



 I’m baaaacckk!!! We had a very busy summer full of Disney adventures, lazy beach days, camp, play dates, gardening, and travel; but we are back into a daily routine of school (for Sean), play, and learning. I feel like my kiddos grew exponentially over those short summer months and are both taking on new stages of development and learning. Miss Olivia is now a lover of babble and learning to say new words daily, mastering fine motor skills like using a spoon/fork/crayon and stacking blocks. She loves music and outdoor play. Sean has mastered recognizing all letters (upper and lowercase) and their phonetic sounds and has moved on to learning to read cvc words. We recently began –at and –an words. He continues to have a love of science and art.

 

 

Now that Sean is back in school part-time, Olivia and I have a few days together to focus on things that interest her. My little songstress can’t say no to a good nursery rhyme and still likes to rummage through treasure baskets, so I combined the two and made her a basket we could explore together.

As I shared in previous posts, treasure baskets are a Montessori inspired activity that promote self-discovery while using various senses. I usually just grab items I have laying around the house and create themed baskets like textiles, balls, color, etc.

For this basket I  listed some of her favorite songs and found or created items that could represent them.

The Wheels on the Bus- a toy bus from the toy box

Old McDonald- some animal shaped play dough cutters

Itsy Bitsy Spider- an old spider teething toy

Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star- I cut out a star shape from an old box and traced it onto a sheet of foil, cut it out and used modge podge glue to adhere the foil to the front and back of the cardboard.

Baa Baa Black Sheep- I cut out an outline of a sheep on cardboard and glued cotton balls to it.

Pat a Cake- a wooden rolling pin from the kitchen

5 Little Ducks- a rubber duck from the bath toy bin



Checking out the goods

Singing Baa Baa Black Sheep

I tossed all the items into her old Easter basket and let her dive in. She was instantly attracted to the shiny star and soft sheep. As she played with each item I sang the song they represented. Next up was the rolling pin and she hummed along with me and did the hand motions for Pat a Cake! After a few songs she realized that she could pull the wool off the poor sheep and spent several minutes piling cotton balls into the basket. She delighted in playing and singing with me for a while and then threw her basket on her arm like a purse, as a lady does, and carried on with playing.   

 







...and she's off!

Do the Monster Mash

Today was one of our bimonthly trips to the library and while Sean hunted for...gasp- TRAIN books, I picked out a few monster books. We have a few at home that Sean likes to read (Birthday Monsters by Sandra Boynton, Glad Monster, Sad Monster by Ed Emberly, Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak) and I had seen some cute projects on Instagram, so I thought I’d grab a few new titles.

 

We read Creepy Monsters, Sleepy Monsters by Jane Yolen and Monsters on Machines by Deb Lund. While reading we took note of how different the monsters looked in size, shape, and body parts. Sean counted eyes, used adjectives to describe, and created silly names for them based on appearance.

 

When we finished the book we whipped up half a batch of The Imagination Tree’s 4 minute no cook playdough. Anna has a very creative play based blog that I’ve been reading for a while. She has TONS of playdough ideas that far exceed simply busting open a jar of dollar store playdough. I usually make JELLO dough but didn’t feel like cooking. I prefer making my own because it doesn't dry out as fast as store bought, and it's a great way to get kids involved in the kitchen.

 

Her recipe is simple: (I halved her recipe so check out her blog for the original recipe)

• 1 cup flour
• ¼ cup salt
• 1 tablespoon cream of tarter
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• ¾ cup of boiling water
• Food coloring

 

 

Mix flour, salt, cream of tarter and vegetable oil in bowl. Add food coloring to the water and gradually mix in the water. Mix until it comes together and is slightly sticky. When it cools down knead it until no longer sticky. You may need to add a little flour if it’s too sticky. I separated the dry ingredients into 3 small bowls and added a little less than ¼ cup of colored water to each bowl.

 

 

I gathered some random loose parts and placed them in an old egg carton and Sean, Olivia, and I started creating monsters.

I used googly eyes, buttons, pom poms, cubes and craft sticks. I also pulled out some rollers, scissors and other random playdough tools.

 

This was a great activity for both kids. Yes! Olivia did try out the playdough, but since it has salt she quickly discovered that it was better for play than snacking!

 

 

After making several monsters, Sean decided he wanted to make a birthday cake for his monster like in his book Birthday Monsters by Sandra Boynton.  I love that playdough can really spark those creative juices!

 

 

 

Some other great Monster reads are:

• Go Away Big Green Monster

• If You’re a Monster and You Know It

• How to Potty Train Your Monster

• Tickle Monster

• That’s Not my Monster

• Go to Bed Monster

• The Book that Eats People

• The Monster Show