This week our class began discussing the changes that the Fall season brings:
warmer clothes, cooler weather, leaves changing colors and falling off of trees, apple picking, pumpkin picking, etc. This week's theme was apples.
In dramatic play the students enjoyed playing various roles in our Farm Stand. Here they can pick apples off of the trees, practice fine motor skills by making pies, act as a server or patron at the farm restaurant, and learn the use of money as a cashier or customer buying items at the farm stand. Students are "selling" apple cider donuts, pies, apple and pumpkin muffins and tickets to a hay ride. This will all be great preparation for our trip to Ward's Berry Farm.
We read several stories about apples this week including Apples and Pumpkins by Anne Rockwell, The Season's of Arnold's Apple Tree by Gail Gibbons and Ten Apples Up On Top by Dr. Seuss.
As a follow up activity to Ten Apples Up on Top the students practiced matching the letters in their name to letters on apples and then gluing them on top of a picture of themselves.
The children also practiced stamping ABAB patterns using red and green apples and sponge painted red apples.
Counting was integrated into our apple theme through songs and finger plays. We used our newly made felt board to act out the following:
Farmer Brown
Farmer Brown has five red apples hanging on a tree,
Farmer Brown has five red apples hanging on a tree,
He picked one apple and ate it hungrily,
Leaving four red apples hanging on the tree.
Farmer Brown has four red apples...
Farmer Brown has three red apples...
Farmer Brown has two red apples...
Farmer Brown has one red apple hanging on a tree,
Farmer Brown has one red apple hanging on a tree,
He picked that apple and it hungrily,
Leaving no red apples hanging on the tree.
Way up High in the Apple Tree
Way up high in the apple tree,
Five red apples smiled at me.
I shook that tree as hard as I could,
Dooowwwwwwwn came an apple….
Mmmm, it was good!
In the art center, students used photographs of apple trees as examples to finger paint their own apple trees. They also made apples out of playdough.
As an end to our apple week, we read Apple Farmer Annie by Monica Wellington and talked about all of the different food items that can be made from apples. Then we all worked together to make our very own applesauce. All of the children had a chance to measure, pour, mix and taste the applesauce. Everyone then sat down together to enjoy applesauce, apple cider and fresh apples to see which way they like apples best. We will graph our results this week.
This week we also had gym class. We played a life-size version of one of our favorite games- Hungry, Hungry Hippos. The children pretended to be hippos and moved around on scooter boards collecting colored balls and placing them in the correct hoola hoop in the center of the gym. This was great leg exercise and color sorting practice! In addition, we did a few apple yoga poses.
I wanted to end this post with one of my favorite parts of our day. Although it is quick, once students finish their snack they are able to go to the reading corner to choose a book. At the start of the year the students hesitantly chose books and sat alone looking at the pictures. Now you can see them getting cozy, sharing books together and talking about the stories!
