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 signed in to which apple treat we liked the best...applesauce, apple pie or apple juice. (name recognition, counting, recognizing and comparing numbers.
- The highlight of the week was making applesauce with the apples the children brought to school. We ate the applesauce for snack in addition to our snacks from home. Most of the class liked the applesauce we made.
- 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. (sequencing, following directions)
- During gym, we practiced positional concepts then balanced bean bags on our head and pretended they were apples just like in the story, Ten Apples on Top. (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)
- We used daubers to practice recognizing numbers 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
- After reading, Apple Trouble, we sequenced the items in the story then made a hedgehog out of apples and toothpicks! (sequencing, recall, fine motor)
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!
Book We Read10 Red ApplesApple TroubleTen 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
