APPLES! APPLES! APPLES!

With the start of school it seems the best time for APPLES!!  Soon it will be time to harvest apples, visit an apple orchard, make some apple pie, or drink some apple cider with some donuts!  Yum!  Sounds good to me :o)

Here are a bunch of ideas to help you with your APPLE THEME at school!

BOOKS

The Biggest Apple Ever -  Steven Kroll

Apples  -  Gail Gibbons

Ten Apples Up on Top  -  Theo Lesieg

Apples, Apples Everywhere!  -  Robin Koontz (visiting an apple orchard)

The Life Cycle of an Apple Tree  -  Linda Tagliaferro

Max's Apples  -  Penguin Group (Max & Ruby Book)

Apple Farmer Annie  -  Monica Wellington

The Apple Pie Tree  -  Zoe Hall

Apples  -  Jacqueline Farmer

Ten Red Apples  -  Pat Hutchins

CIRCLE TIME 

1.  Have some discussions about apples.  First ask...."What do you know about apples?"

    Write down their responses....even if they are silly.  At the end of the week/theme you can go back over 

  these and see if all their responses are correct. 

    Example:  If someone had said at the beginning that apples grow on a vine on the ground.  The kids would now know that they do not grow on a vine....they grow on trees.

2. Have a basket of apples ready to use.  Pick one child to come up and make a group of three apples.  Have another child come up and place ONE apple by itself.

Ask the children how many apples they think they would have if they put those two groups together.

 Have another child come slide them together and count.  Was the class right?
     Now have another child come up and put two apples back into the basket.  How many do they have left?
     Keep adding and subtracting apples until all students have had a turn.


3. Make up some silly sentences on the board or on sentence strips.  Read a sentence and then have a child come up and find the word "apple" in that sentence.  You can have them circle it or give them an apple picture to place on top of the word.



4.  Apple Tasting / Graphing
   Slice up green, yellow and red apples.  Give each child a red apple slice and have them eat it.  Continue with the yellow and green.  When they are done, ask them one at a time to come up and pick the color of marker that matches their favorite apple.  Have a picture of a red, yellow and green apple at the top of a graph.  Let them use the marker to write their name under their favorite color.
  Talk about the graph and which color had the most, least, equal number.  Display the graph in the hallway for others to see.

ART PROJECTS 

VERY HUNGRY WORM (APPLE LACING) 

This is a laminated one that we use in the classroom, but each child can make their own to take home.

Start by giving them an apple cut out of tag board or card stock.

Next have them color their apple and help use a hole punch around outside.

Glue on a worm picture and add a piece of green yarn or we used thin green ribbon. Wrap a piece of Scotch Tape around one end to make it easier to put through holes.

Apple Crowns / Patterning

Have a supply of die-cut red, yellow and green apples.

Give each child a sentence strip and have them use the apples to make patterns.

Once they have the pattern they like best, let them glue the pieces on.

These can be worn throughout the week to celebrate APPLES!

Apple Rubbings

Save the outside part from your die-cut apples (or the part you cut the apple from)

Layer about 4 of them together and tape them down to a table.

Next lay a piece of paper over the stencil and use red, green & yellow (doesn't show up as well) crayons.
Take the paper off of crayons and lay the crayon on its side to rub over the stencil.  Let them do as many apples as they would like on their page to make a collage of apple rubbings.

Ten Apples Up on Top!

After reading this book, you can let your students make their own class book about it.

Give each student a piece of paper and a picture of themselves (or you can have them draw their head)

Give them an apple stamp (or apple pictures or you can use their thumbprints and add stems later)

and let them stamp what apples they would like on top of their head.

 You can display separately on a bulletin board or laminate and put together as a class book...or just send home

CENTER ACTIVITIES

1.  Play the game...Hi- Ho! Cherry-O  (I know it is cherries, but the kids think they are apples LOL)

 My game is really old so the board inside sags in the middle, making our trees lean too much.

I have found it much easier for this game and many others (like Go Fish) to stand the trees (or cards)

in a small clump of Play-doh!  The trees don't fall and much easier to keep your apples on it.

2. Verbal Directionality   Use one of the trees from the game above or any other tree or picture of a tree.

   Working with one child at a time, give them an apple picture or a red pom and have them listen to the word you give them and then place the "apple" in the correct spot.  Keep a record of how they do at the beginning of the year and re-do at the end of the year to track their progress.

 

 Some words to use:  beside, above, behind, in, under, on top, on, off, away, around, in front, beneath, etc

3.  Name Writing  Place a set of name cards at the table that have each child's name and picture on them.

  Supply them with some laminated apple nameplates and wipe-off markers.  Let them find their name and practice writing it.  When they are done have them use a tissue to wipe their marker off for the next student.

4.  Apple Numbers File Folder Game:   Make a file folder game.  Glue a big tree inside the folder.  Add a little envelope in one corner.  Make apple cards with Numbers & place in envelope.  Make a little apple basket and staple it on so that it is sort of rounded out to put things in.  You can use red poms or apple pics in the basket.  Children will draw a card out of the envelope and place it on the tree trunk.  Then they will take that number of "apples" from the basket and place on their tree.  Or you can put all the poms on the tree to begin with and let them take that many of each time and fill their basket.

5.  Life Cycle Sequencing  

    Have students follow your directions and draw pictures in 4 boxes, depicting the life cycle changes of an apple tree.

First box:  Draw a bare tree in winter.    Second Box:  Draw the tree again, but add pink blossoms and green leaves.     Third Box:  Draw tree trunk and light green apples.  Fill in darker green leaves.   Fourth Box:  Draw trunk and red apples.  Fill in green leaves.

 (I realize my boxes are a little screwy LOL  - just now drew them)

After they are done drawing, have them cut boxes apart and use to sequence and tell the life cycle. 

6.  Applesauce in your sand table 

     Add applesauce to your sand and water table.  Put some red, green and yellow poms in it.  Add spoons and maybe some tweezers to pick poms out and sort into containers.  You can also give the kids some small plastic jars with lids and let them pretend they work in an applesauce factory. 

7.  Apple Toss Game:

   

 Use a small apple basket or container.  If you can find plastic apple ornaments (shown in pic), these work great.  If not, you can use rolled up red, green and yellow socks as apples.  Sit your basket on the floor and take about 8 - 10 steps back and make a line on the floor with masking tape.  The child takes the apples one at a time and stands behind the line and tries to throw as many apples into the basket as they can.  When they have thrown all the apples, have them count the total they got into the basket.  See who can get the highest number.

 8. Apple Relay:

    Divide students into two groups.  Give each child an apple.  When it is their turn to go for their group, they must hold the apple under their chin, WITH NO HANDS.  Have them walk with it under their chin down to their team's apple basket and try to lean over and drop it into the basket without using any hands.  If it doesn't go in...leave it on the floor then go sit down and the next team mate goes.  When all players have gone, check the baskets to determine a winning team.

9.  Matching Numbers with Apple Seeds:

    You can use the apple number cards from your file folder game or just write a number on some cards and turn over in a pile.  Give child a sheet of paper, red/green/yellow markers.   Turn over the top card and say the #.  Let them choose a color to draw an apple.  Use the brown marker to add that matching # of seeds to the center of their apple. Write the number beside the apple.  They can do as many cards as will fit on their paper.  Have them write their name at the top of the page.  Display these in the hallway or around the room.

Apple Song
 Way up high in the apple tree  (point up)
Two red apples smiled at me  (point to your smile)
I shook that tree as hard as I could  (pretend to shake a tre)
Down came the apples  (falling fingers)
Mmmm...were they cood!  (Rub your tummy) 

Have You Ever Seen an Apple? 
(sung to Have You Ever Seen a Lassie?)

Have you ever seen an apple,

an apple, an apple?

Have you ever seen an apple

That grows on a tree?

A red one, a yellow one,

A green one, a golden one.

Have you ever seen an apple

That grows on a tree?

To end your week,  have an apple picnic! 

 Lay a sheet or big tablecloth over your circle time rug or area.

Have foods all made from apples for the kids to taste.  Such as:

applesauce (which I tell how to make in an earlier post in July/snacks), apple cider,

apple juice, apple pie, apple cake, apple strudel, etc.

 Let the kids eat while you read a couple of the apple books you didn't get to during the week or  watch  a

movie about picking apples at an orchard  Here: Apple Farm Video 

                 Have FUN!