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 area. We had students calling in orders for real apples, pretend 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 with numbered apples to retell the story. (answering questions, sequencing, counting, recognizing numbers)
- We also read a 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 9 (liked) to 5(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)
- 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, blocks and rolled them down ramps. (gross motor, counting, patterning, experimenting)
- We practiced 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. 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 finish up our unit on apples by cutting strips of red, green and yellow construction paper, hole punching an apple, using crayons to do apples rubbings, painting apple trees using paint daubers and sequencing eating an apple. (fine motor, sequencing)
- We signed in to our favorite color apple and favorite apple treat. (recognizing our names, counting, recognizing and comparing numbers, making decisions independently)
During our 2nd Steps lesson, we learned to ask questions using a strong respectful voice. Our letter this week was H for HIPPO, Harrison and Harry. Our Heggerty lesson included listening to different instruments to find out if they were the same sound or a different sound. I held a black piece of butcher paper over the instruments so the kids could not see them. In addition, we practiced rhyming words, beginning sounds, and bringing words together to make one word. For example, play/ground is playground.
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, made applesauce)
*What did we do with the apple skins? (cut them in the blue tub 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? Was it the squirrel or he goat? (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
Monday10/13 and Wednesday 10/15 in the afternoon- Parent Teacher Conferences
Monday 10/20 No School
Wednesday 10/29 Theis Pumpkin Farm field trip-more details to follow
Thursday 10/30 Wear your costume to school-no masks and wear gym shoes for outside time
Next Week
Space and planets!
Enjoy the pictures!
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| Happy 4th Birthday, Harrison!! |
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| We built apple trees out of pom poms, popsicle sticks and paper towel tubes! |
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| We pretended to put worms on our apple using clothespins! |
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| Our apple store was up and running! |
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| We worked on correct grip, helper hand and thumb up while cutting. |
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| Journal: What is your favorite color apple? |
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| We played, "Red Apple, Green Apple." It is the same as "Red Light, Green Light." The hippos watched as to when they could move and when they were to stop based on the color. |
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| After reading the book, Ten Apples On Top, we pretended to put apples on top of our heads. |
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| It was fun to use pipettes and colored water to squeeze into ice cube trays. We used red, yellow and green water. |
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| Art Fun |
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| Show and Tell |
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| Show and Tell |
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| Show and Tell |
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| The hippos practiced recognizing our Handwriting without Tears letters. |
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| During circle time we sequenced the steps in making our applesauce. |
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| The students used tongs and sorted the apples (pom, poms) by color in the cups. |
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| "How many apples tall are you?" The students lined them up and everyone counted the apples. |
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| Which apples weigh more? |
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| After reading, Ten Apples On Top, the hippos built towers with these apple blocks. |
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| Apples and blocks |
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| The students cut out apples and glued them on top of their heads. They then counted the apples. |
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| We ate the applesauce we made during snack time! |
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| We practice tracing the letters in our name and writing a few letters with verbal directions. |
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| Everyone used teamwork to complete this puzzle all by themselves! |
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| Question...What will happen to an apple that is left out? The hippos made predictions. |
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| Music fun! |
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| Here are the items that stuck to the hedgehog in our story. |
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| We cut the skins of the apples we peeled. |
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| Garden Fun! |
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| The students sorted worms. |
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| We investigated the parts of an apple with a magnifying glass. |
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| It was fun to make a hedgehog with toothpicks. |
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| Here we added spikes to these hedgehogs! |
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| We all practiced making patterns with apple pictures. |
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| Apples and dump trucks! |
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| We followed a recipe for making our applesauce during circle time. |
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| Everyone had a turn to place their apple in the correct column. We then counted and compared the numbers. |
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| All gathered as we peeling the apples. |
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| It was fun to see how tall the apple peel was. |
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| Look at our cute apple tree! |
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| The hippos made round balls to represent apples, then added a stem and put them on the tree. |
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| Apples and ramps! |
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| The students played with the props in the story we read. |
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| After recognizing a number, we found it on the apple tree and colored it in. |
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| The hippos counted the seeds and matched them to the correct numbered apple. |
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| After cutting the apples, we taped them on our tree. |
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| We practiced our comprehension and number skills while reading, 10 Red Apples. |
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| Making apples in tins and using mashers. |
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| Everyone decorated an apple for our bulletin board. |
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| Sorting apples |
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| The life cycle of an apple. |
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| After peeling the apple we investigated its parts. (core, seeds skins, color) |
