Theme: All About Apples!

During the month of September we learned all about apples! Here are just a few of the activities I did with my three year old class...

   

I purchased two red, yellow, green and pink apples. When you ask a preschooler, "what color are apples?" The normal response is, "Red!" I wanted to show my  students that apples come in a variety of colors.

We talked about the different parts of an apple. 1. Skin 2. Stem 3. Flesh 4. Seeds

"From the seeds of an apple, a new apple tree will grow and make more apples!"

I gave the name of each apple as I placed it on the corresponding construction-paper color strip.

I cut one of each apple in half to show the students the "surprise" hidden in each apple: a Star!

"In the star is where the seeds hide."

Then it was time to taste the apples! Before tasting I asked each child to tell me which one they think they are going to like best. I handed them a paper apple in the corresponding color they said they thought they would like.

We tasted each apple one by one. We talke about how each apple tastes. I asked them if the apple tastes sour, sweet, or tangy?

After we tasted each apple, I asked them which apple  they liked best. I then gave them a paper apple in the color corresponding to their response. We looked to see if they ended up likeing the apple they had predicted at the beginning.

Investigation Station: I set out trays with an apple, seeds, a stem, and a magnifying glass. We sat together and talked about what we observed. 

Here is my son looking at the Golden Delicious up close. 

Apple Craft Acticity: after we finished tasting and investigating I had each child pick the apple they liked best and I gave them a strip of construction paper in the color corresponding to their response. They cut the construction paper strip and glued the cut pieces on a paper plate. When finished glueing, they adorned it with a stem and leaf.

Seasonal Tree: this tree in our class changes with the season. In September it had bright green leaves with the apples the students made.

Sensory Tub: Aa is for apple! I added red, yellow and green pom poms in three sizes (small, medium and large), foam apples, an apple strainer, and nesting bowls to group the apples by size and color. 

Thank you for stopping by. Hope these activities inspire you to create and learn with and for your students. :)

Blessings,

Erica

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September Week 3

Lesson plans

Alphabet: Letter Cc

Numbers: 1

Colors: Red, Green, Yellow

Theme: Apples

Bible: Creation Day 2

Alphabet:

Letter of the week box: camera, cup, comb, clock, calculator, crayon, candle, can, coin wallet with coins, cow, cookies,  and car.

Cc snack: corn

We looked through the letter of the week box and talked about each item emphasizing the beginning sound. Ex: "That  is a camera, /c/ /c/ /c/ camera." After E was done exploring with the letter Cc items we made the letter Cc craft. I added the glue on large C and my son E placed the cotton balls on it.

Letter Cc Activities:

Cotton-ball Toss:

This is a simple game to put together. All you need is two cups and cotton balls. We played two versions. One version is to toss the cotton into the cups and second version is one person throws the cotton ball and the other person catches it in the cup. E enjoyed tossing it in the cup more then catching. 

E LOVED this sensory tub activity! I finally pulled out our sand and water table from storage and E enjoyed playing with the cars in the clouds!

What's inside the sensory tub:

-sky (water tinted with blue food coloring)

-clouds (cotton balls and mounds of shaving cream)

-small transparent cars from the dollar store

-large plastic cup and small blue measuring cup.

You don't need to add a lot of cotton balls to the sensory tub, because once they absorb the water they expand and stretch. As you can see in the picture above.

Theme:

E loves apples! He was excited about this week's theme. I bought different types of apples for him to see. I bought one red, green, pink and yellow apple. We talked about the different colors of apples and we cut them open to investigate the inside. I shared with him that apples have seeds inside and from those seeds new apples will grow. I cut one apple to show the "star" that hides inside. He thought that was "awesome." Then we cut some apples to eat! We dipped them in honey Greek yogurt...yum!

Later in the day we made an apple craft. E had the sniffles this week so he wasn't too interested in the craft. He dabbed a

few bingo dots on one, a couple yellow circle stickers on another and the last one was green paper that we ripped apart and glue on the paper plate. I then glued the stem and leaf on each apple.

These apple prints were fun to make. E enjoyed not only making prints with the apples, but also loved sticking his feet and hands inside the homemade cornstarch sidewalk paint! This awesome idea and recipe is by Learn Play Imagine. You can get the recipe by clicking the link below:

http://pinterest.com/pin/345721708866074696/

Sometimes you may plan an activity that your little one will not have much interest in and that's ok. That's what happened when I planned the apple color match activity. I placed three colors of apples (Pom Pom balls) in three sizes small, medium, and large in an apple shaped colander. The objective was to match the apples to the corresponding bowl color. E was not feeling well and just didn't care much for the activity. So I turned it into a sensory tub and he LOVED that! The sensory was soothing for him since he was not feeling well.

There were cars inside the apple sensory tub too! Boys need to have cars! :)

Field Trip: my ideal plan was to take E to an apple farm for him to pick apples, but the closest farm is 2.5 hours! It was not going to work this week to take E. especially since he was under the weather with the sniffles. So, we opted to take a trip to a friends house who has an apple tree in their back yard! It was perfect! E was able to see an apple tree close up and pick an apple. They had chickens too! Thanks friend!

Numbers: 

We focused on number one this week. E glued one apple on the number one. 

The number one activity was to place one object (either a glass pebble, wooden bead, or a button) on the one green apple, the one red apple and the one yellow apple. This is one-to-one correspondence. 

Bible:

Memory Verse of the Month: "in the beginning God created the heavens and the Earth." Genesis 1:1

Memory Verse Song: "God is Creator" by Seeds Family Worship

We are continuing to talk about that God is Creator. This week we focused on the second day of creation. On day two of creation God said, "Let there be a vault between the waters.." God called it "sky."

We listened to the memory verse song as E helped me place the clouds and water on the blue card stock paper. {In advanced I precut the clouds and the water}. 

Wow, what a fun filled week! Next week our theme will be Fall leaves! I love this season, it's my favorite! 

Thank you for your support and stopping by! Hope these activities inspire you!

Blessings,

Erica

Click here for more apple themed activities:

http://mylittlesonbeam.blogspot.com/2014/10/theme-all-about-apples.html?m=1

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