Ten Apples Up On Top! This Week’s Pre-School Theme: Apples!
Derek is Excited For This Week's Theme!
Our pre-school/ kindergarten theme this week is apples. Don’t apples make you think of Fall? Crisp Red Delicious apples fresh from Washington, cool air, and sweaters put me in the Autumn mood. We won’t be wearing sweaters any time soon in Florida, but we will be learning a lot about different types of apples, apple trees, plant growth, harvest, and more.
A fun and challenging part about teaching multiple grade levels is incorporating different ability-levels into a common theme that everyone can enjoy. Here are our goals for today:
Tuesday
THEME: Apples
Circle Discussion: Apple Trees
-Types of apples (red, yellow, green) (Red Delicious, Fuji, McIntosh, Cameo, Rome Beauty, etc)
-Apples have been around since ancient times
-Apple trees grow in orchards and ripen in the fall; Apple trees may live more than 100 years
-Read about harvest and plant growth from “What Your Kindergartener Needs to Know “
-An apple tree may live for more than one hundred years, but a mature tree revisits the same seasonal cycle year after year. In summer tiny buds appear on the branches. The buds develop and grow a protective covering in the fall. During the winter the buds are dormant, protected from the cold by a fuzzy coat. In the spring buds explode into green leaves and little flower buds appear. Insects pollinate the apples flowers, which give way to developing apples. Every apple contains seeds that can begin the process again. Use the poster to reinforce these concepts (From Scholastic website).
Literacy Activities: Read “10 Apples Up On Top,” Tracing A’s for Derek, A-word Word Search for Ethan. The Letter of the week is A.
Songs and Fingerplays: Apple Theme
All Around The Apple Tree
Sung to: “Mulberry Bush”
Here we go round the apple tree, the apple tree, the apple tree
Here we go around the apple tree
On a frosty morning.
This is the way we climb the ladder
-pick the apples
-wash the apples
-peel the apples
-cook the apples
Ten Red Apples
(Both hands high) Ten red apples grow on a tree
(Dangle one hand and then the other) Five for you and five for me.
(Shake body) Let us shake the tree just so
(Hands fall) And ten red apples will fall below
(Count ea. finger) 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10.
Apple Poem
Apples big,
Apples small.
Guess what?
I like them all.
Art: Color Apple Tree Pictures
Number Sense: Workbooks and IXL.com
Large Motor Skills: “Apple Picking” and “Apple Balancing Fun”
For apple picking, see dramatic play.
Apple Balancing Fun: Balance beanbags on head to simulate apple balancing from book “Ten Apples Up On Top.” This can be done in circle time.
Fine Motor Development: Writing/ Tracing- See art and literacy sections
Dramatic Play: Pretend Farm
Pretend Apple Picking:
Wake Up! We’re going apple picking today! (Yawn, stretch, pretend to hope out of bed)
Let’s drive to the farm. (Pretend to steer car).
Get your basket. (Pretend to get basket).
Wow! Look at all the apples! Let’s pick some! (Pick apples off tree)
Put them in your basket. (Bend down, place in basket)
These apples are really high! Let’s climb! (Pretend to climb tree)
Wow! Our basket is really full! (Pretend to lift heavy basket)
Let’s pay for our apples. (Pretend to give money).
Let’s drive home, that was fun! (Pretend to steer car).
Science and Discovery: Learn About Apple Trees and Farms (circle time)
As you can see, many of these important developmental goals overlap. We should have a really fun day ahead of us. Later this week, we look forward to some apple tasting experiments and baking an apple pie. This week will be a blast!
What are some of your favorite Fall learning activities?
