This time of year is definitely my favorite….APPLE theme time! I think it goes without saying that I love apples!!
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This past week we started learning all about apples. On Friday, we celebrated Johnny Appleseed’s birthday by having a full day of apple activities and apple snacks.
To start our apple journey, I read a couple non-fiction books and then we did a whole group tree map graphic organizer. After our whole group discussion, I had my students fill out their own graphic organizers. These organizers come from my Fall Tree Map Graphic Organizers pack, a differentiated pack of organizers and matching writing pages for the best season of all…fall!
My students also showed their expertise and knowledge on apples by labeling the parts of an apple and the life cycle from my All About Apples pack. You can grab a sample of my All About Apples pack in my FREE RESOURCE LIBRARY! Just enter your email address and you’ll get an email from me with the password to my free resource library. If you’re already a subscriber, head on over and grab your free copy now!
Being able to make learning fun is one of the reasons I love teaching, and love teaching Kindergarten! Friday was one of those days that made me smile and enjoy my job during the still stressful back to school time.
I brought apple snacks and cider and came ready with lots of activities to have my students do throughout the day on Friday!
Activity 1: Apple Smiles
I brought in my apple slicer and showed the students how it separates the core and slices the apple. They were amazed (and so is my husband)! Since I have a peanut allergy this year, we used white frosting to spread on the apples and then placed mini marshmallows on to make a smile. Mostly, the kids just made a mess and licked their fingers, but they were loving it!!
Activity 2: Sorting Mats with Apple Jacks
I had a parent bring in Apple Jacks and I knew I wanted the students to use them for something before they snacked on them so I came up with these sorting mats. Just print and laminate these mats to make a new math center game! I taped together the 2 mats below to make a bigger counting to 10 mat.
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You can choose from 3 different fall themes with these mats – apples, pumpkins, and leaves. These are great for math centers and small groups! Students can practice counting to 5 and 10, sorting by color, and making patterns. See the full pack HERE.
End of the day snack: “Homemade” Applesauce and Apple Cider
I totally stole this idea from Amy over at Learning Lessons with Mrs. Labrasciano! I knew I wouldn’t have time beforehand to prep everything for homemade applesauce so I brought in 2 big jars and dumped them in the Crock Pot with some cinnamon. I put it on warm during the day and stirred it a lot to fill the room with the wonderful aroma of warm applesauce. The kids loved it and we still talked about the ingredients that you would need (since they all said the ingredients were “applesauce!!!!”) We also had apple cider because we’re reading Apple Orchard Race from my favorite chapter book series Ready, Freddy. The kids in the story go on a field trip to an apple orchard and see how apple cider gets made. Every year I read this book and bring in apple cider to have the students try and compare it to apple juice. I didn’t hear any spit ups so I think everyone liked it this year!!
The apple smiles are so cute! It totally cracks me up that you don't really like to eat apples, but have a love for apple things!
Love it!
Alisha
Missing Tooth Grins