Hippo Headlines: 2023-09-24

Hello Hippo Families!

We had such a great week learning about apples!

Here are some hippo and apple highlights

We opened a bakery/apple stand in the dramatic play. We had students calling in orders for apples, pies and muffins. We also had students working the cash register and stocking shelves. It was fun to watch the imaginations soar! (taking turns, using language)
We read 10 Red Apples, and then used plastic animals and an apple tree to retell the story. (answering questions, sequencing, counting, recognizing numbers)
We also read a fiction book called Apple Trouble . We made apple hedgehogs and practiced sequencing the story.
We sequenced the stages of growing an apple (plant seed, grow tree, flower blossoms, flowers fall off then apple forms)
The highlight of the week was making applesauce with the apples the children brought to school. After making the applesauce we had a taste test and the kids voted yes, I liked it or no, I did not like it. The vote was 11 (liked) to 3(did not like). We discussed the concepts of more and less.
After coring the apples, we used the peels (skins) to work on our cutting skills. We talked about how to hold scissors. (sensory/cutting)
It was fun to use a recipe and then sequence the pictures of making applesauce after we had our taste test.
During gym, we played red apple, green apple (red light, green light), practiced positional concepts with real apples then balanced bean bags on our head and pretended they were apples. (gross motor, following 2 step directions)
We played a fun game called "Applesauce". We handed out cards with shapes on them. Each child received a card. When it was their turn to turn it over, they either named the shape or called out "Applesauce" if their card had an apple on it. Each time we yelled out applesauce we stomped our feet! (gross motor, following directions, learning shapes)
The hippos used a hole puncher to make holes in an apple for worms. (strengthening finger muscles)
Our sensory tub contained beans, tongs and apple cartons with red, yellow and green apples. (pom poms). We sorted the different pom poms into the correct container according to color.
It was fun to make little apples with stems using playdough. We attached them to a tree. We also used mashers, rolling pins and tins to pretend to be a bakery. (fine motor, sensory)
In addition, we sorted real apples, patterned apples, counted seeds and matched them to the correct number, weighed apples, measured how many apples tall we were, observed parts of an apple using a magnifying glass and played with apples with our trucks and rolled them down ramps. (gross motor, counting, patterning, experimenting)
Using daubers to practice recognizing numbers and letters on an apple tree.
After reading Ten Apples On Top, we cut out apples and glued them on top of a picture of our heads (cutting skills, following 2 step directions). We also made towers with apple blocks and put worms on apples (clothespins on cardboard circles). This worked on strengthening the finger muscles used for cutting and writing.
The students decorated apples using a variety of materials. We displayed them on our tree bulletin board. (fine motor, making decisions independently, showing persistence)
STEM activity-we gave the students paper towel tubes (tree trunk), popsicle sticks (tree branches) and red, yellow and green pom poms (apples) and the students made their own apple trees.
We asked the kids what they thought would happen to a peeled apple left out for a few days. We discussed the word hypothesis which is a guess. The kids came up with all different guesses. We will observe the apple on Monday. (participating as a member of a group)
We used apple stickers to locate our HWOT (L, F, E, H) letters! (letter recognition)
On Monday we will finsh up our unit on apples by cutting strips of red, green and yellow construction paper, using crayons to do apples rubbings, painting apple trees using paint daubers and sequencing eating an apple. (fine motor, sequencing)

During our 2nd Steps lessson, we learned to ask what we need in a strong respectful voice. Our letter this week was H for HIPPO and Hugo.

Book We Read
10 Red Apples
Apple Trouble

The Bad Apple

Ten Apples on Top

Questions to Ask Your Child
*What types of things did you do with apples this week? (counted them, pretended to be in an apple stand, peeled them with an apple corer, cut apple peels, apple play dough)
*What did we do with the apple skins? (cut them and stretched them out to see how long they were)
*What animal ate the objects off the hedgehog's back in our story, Apple Trouble? (the goat)

*What did we make to eat using apples? (applesauce)

*How can you be a good friend?

Apple Fingerplay
Way Up High in the apple tree,
2 little apples were smiling at me.
I shook that tree as hard as I could.
Down came the apples.
Mmmm... were they good and juicy!
(CRUNCH)

Reminders

10/11 Vision screening during school

10/16 Parent Teacher Conference week- Monday and Wednesday-more details to follow

10/26 Thursday Theis Pumpkin Farm field trip

10/29 Magic House Halloween Party

10/18 & 11/2 Hearing screening during school

Next Week

Space and planets!

Enjoy the pictures!

Making apples for our bulletin board!

Recognizing and matching numbers.

Using a hole puncher to make holes for a pretend worm.

Making apples out of playdoh!

Sorting apples

Using an apple peeler, corer slicer to get the skins off
to make our applesauce.

Look how long this apple skin is.

Our shape applesauce game.

Everyone enjoyed making a hedgehog based on our story.

Cutting sticky apple skins!

Retelling our story using props.

Matching by using tongs in the sensory table.

Weighing worms and apples.

Pasting apples on top!

Show and Tell

The students put an apple sticker on the letter called.

Balancing apples (bean bags) on our heads!

I have 5 apples on top!

Journals-What is your favorite apple?

I like yellow!

Attaching worms (clothespins) to the apple.

Apple Bakery

Apple Bakery Store

Using a magnet to find letters.

We cut apples and put them on our trees!

We practiced extending apple patterns.

We practiced making our own patterns.

What is your favorite colored apple? The students found their name to make their vote.
We counted, wrote thenumber and compared the columns. (more, less, equal)