APPLES is our main theme for SEPTEMBER.

Welcome to our Arts-Crafts & Activities section of the Blog. Each month we'll be featureing something different for you to do with your children at home, or your students at school.

Etc. Before I launch into apples,  I have a few non-apple ideas you might like to dabble in.

A SWEET SURPRISE: Why not make a treat bag for your students.  It can be for their 1st day, at the end of the first week, or some time in September after they've mastered a report card standard to celebrate the "sweet smell of success!"  I buy M&M's and Skittles in bulk at Sams or Costco and then fill the tiny zip bags that you can buy at Hobby Lobby or other craft stores.  Some teachers debate the fact that candy rewards are not good for students, but I find that one quick melting M& M or Skittle after lunch is a great incentive or motivator for positive behavior.  Click on the link above for a copy of  the poem I include in the treat bags I make.  I also made "Writing Survival Kits" for my first graders. Click on that link if you'd like to make those for your students.

Crayon Box Cuties: For a cute hallway decoration, keep the empty crayon boxes after you get done dumping the crayons into community sharing tubs. Take a 1st day of school photo of your students and insert one in each of the boxes. Type your class list on the back of the box. Mrs./Mr. _________ has a brand new pack! Punch a hole in the top and dangle from the ceiling! What a cute keepsake. For more great crayon ideas click on the link to check out my crayon unit. 

The Wheels On The Bus Are Circles and Round!  The first shape I teach my Y5's is the circle. One of the 1st songs I teach them is The Wheels on the Bus. They enjoy dabbing all kinds of round lids that I've collected in a variety of colored paint to make a circle collage. They complete their project by pasting a sticker to the top left hand corner that says: The wheels on the bus are round..  Click on the link to see how I set up their painting station as well as some samples of their awesome collages.

Denim Craft Bag: I don't know about you, but I tote all kinds of things back and forth. from school and I can never find a bag big or strong enough. When I want to take my bag to the park to work so I can get some fresh air, my pencils, scissors and other suppliies  get lost at the bottom of the bag and I'm forever wasting time rummaging around looking for them.; and often times I'm lugging books and the strap breaks because the bag's too heavy!

My solution: a sturdy denim bag and it only cost me one dollar because I bought a pair of old blue jeans at a garage sale!

• This is how you can easily make one for yourself.
• Look for the biggest pair of jeans you can find.
• One with lots of pockets and a side loop to hold scissors is a real find.You can see the loop on the right of the pix.
• Cut off the legs and save them for the strap.
• Turn it inside out and sew up the bottom.
• Cut a length wide and long enough for a strap. Make this from the pant leg.
• Sew the strap to the inside hip portion of the jeans. I sew it triple, and use a quilting stich so it is really on there good.
• Wahla! Instant tote bag.
• Mine even fits a huge drawing pad and medium-sized big books!
• I love it. I carry my scissors in the loop and all of my various supplies in the pockets.
• You can embellish with puffy paint, or hot glue oppliques on. I preferred to simply leave mine plain.

Click here for over 50 crafts 4 kids. Scroll down past their advertisement and click on a craft that interests you.

There's a Johnny Appleseed stamped towel craft at the bottom in Series 700.

APPLE SUBTRACTION SONG                                                                       & BORDER BOOKLET

• I just LOVE the Dollar Store. I'm always finding great things there.
  
• I sometimes go just to get ideas. They're currently selling borders and ours has apple ones.
  
• I tell the teachers who attend my workshops to have their new mantra be: "What can I do with this?"
•  So when I saw the wonderful array of apple borders I thought to myself, well I don't need them for a bulletin board so what else can I do with these?
• I designed a rebus reader for my students based on the song 5 Little Apples On the Apple Tree, only I made it 4 Little Apples so I could cut each of these border sheets in half.
  
• The border is the cover of the little book!
  
• Incase you can't find the border, I've made a cover sheet for you with the 4 numbered apples.
• If you do get the border, have your students number the apples.
• Click here for 13 fun pages of APPLE ACTIVITIES to go with your little rebus reader, including the fingerplay song, and several easy subtraction skill sheets. (I never call them worksheets. That gives them a negative connotation. Who wants to do work! I call them fun sheets or skill sheets and my students then WANT to do them. Wouldn't you?)
  
• There's also an Apple Annie Has An Appetite CHANT and an Apple Annie art project to make.
• Make just one Apple Annie, laminate her, attach a baggie in the back and have your students "READ and FEED" her numbers and letters that you've printed on the little apples that you cut from the border that you bought, or let them each make a construction paper Annie of their own, and have them glue it to a paper bag.
  
• Check out my other Apple Annie SHAPE story by clicking on the link.
  
• You can make HUNGRY- themed creatures each month for your students to READ & FEED.
  
• What a fun way to review numbers, shapes, letters, words or whatever other concepts you are studying.
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• I've also designed two apple spinner games for you. One is a color graphing game the other is a slice of
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• apple colors. Included in this 11 page pack is a blank graph for you to use incase you want to bring in the 3 different colored apples and have a taste test. Give a small piece of each color apple to all of your students, then graph which they liked best. Or use the blank graph for any other graphing activity of the day you have planned.  
• The last page is a list of apple trivia.
  
• Click here if you'd like an apple poster. I retyped it from a card one of my students gave me one year. I just love it and hope you get a chuckle out of it too.
  
• I put some Avery white labels in the printer and made these apple sticker labels. My children cut them apart and did addition or subtraction equations with them like the photo shown. 9+1= 10 apples. I followed it up with a reading of Seus's 10 Apples Up On Top.
  
• Don't forget to check out my Apple Unit and my Apple Art Arts & Activities Book. You'll love these quick and easy projects that nail the early elementary report card standards. My students enjoy doing them and our hallway and bulletin boards look fantastic!
• Here's a link to a preschool site that has a nice list of simple apple activities.
• Want to try your skills at APPLE "potato head"? click on the link. If you get tired of decorating an apple you can change the fruit to another kind of vegetable!
  
• No matter what art you're up to this month, I hope they are apple-iciously awesome!
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