1-2-3 Come Do Some SHAPELY Apple Activities With Me

Apple week wouldn't be complete without doing some shape activities.  I found that the most successful way to get my students to be able to recognize, as well as name the various 2D and 3D shapes, was to immerse them in all sorts of hands-on activities, where they could work with all of the shapes.  I had a variety of different activities to keep interest high, but it was that consistent repetition that helped turn the light bulbs on.

Since I've had a few requests for some more activities involving Johnny Appleseed, I thought I'd design some shape games using Phillip Martin's cute Johnny Appleseed character.  The first one is entitled: Where Is Johnny Appleseed?  It reviews the 2D shapes: circle, oval, triangle, rectangle, square, pentagon, hexagon, octagon, trapezoid, rhombus, star and heart. 

Choose the shapes you want to work on.  Print, laminate and trim those apple cards and put them on your white board using a magnet, or on your flannel board using the scratchy side of a square of Velcro. 

There are two Johnny Appleseed Card options.  Choose one, print, laminate and trim.  Before your students get to school, put Johnny behind one of the apples. 

When students are gathered on the carpet, call on a quiet child to guess which apple shape they think Johnny Appleseed is hiding behind.  "I think he's behind the hexagon."  Lift up the card to take a peek and see if he's there. 

If not, that child calls on another to take a guess.  Play continues 'til someone has found Johnny Appleseed.  The simplistic beauty of this game, is that it only takes a few moments of time, and reviews shapes and the shape word in an interesting and fun way. 

I've also included a set of mini cards, so children can play Memory Match and "I Have; Who Has?" games.  Click on the link to view/download the Where's Johnny Appleseed Shape Game. 

The other Johnny Appleseed game involves spactial directions. As you know, part of the Common Core State Standards for shapes involves placement of the shapes. 

This "Where's Johnny's Apple?" game is a quick, easy and fun way to help reinforce that vocabulary, as well as whole-group assess students' understanding of the directional words. 

To play the game, run off the black line master of Johnny Appleseed.   (There are 2 on a page for easy printing.)  Children color their Johnny. (I've included a large one that's in color for teachers to use.) Print and trim the apple manipulatives and give each student one. 

Choose a child to pick a direction card, (there are 21 + a blank one to fill in with whatever). Show it to the class and then read it together. 

Children place their apple in the appropriate position (over, under, on, between, beside ...) on their Johnny Appleseed mat.  You can see at a glance who's having difficulty and jot a note to yourself. 

After you have quickly assessed your students, place the teacher apple on your Johnny Appleseed poster in the correct position.  (I put my poster on the white board.) 

Children look at their Johnny mat to see if they have the correct answer and adjust if necessary.

After the game, pass out a certificate of praise to help build self-esteem.  Click on the link to view/download the Where's Johnny's Apple?  Spatial Direction Game.

The Apple Shape Matching game provides a wonderful independent center for early finishers, or more practice for struggling kiddos.  Picking up and placing the various shapes also provides great fine motor practice.  

For a sweet "oldie but goodie" apple shape easy reader, click on the link for The Shape of Apple Annie.  It was one of my first apple stories and serves up a nice lesson about being content and happy with who you are. 

Annie, however, is not happy with her apple-shape 'til she turns into all sorts of other shapes.  Children trace the various apple shapes and then write the shape words in the spaces provided. 

Finally, since all of the silly shaped animals (penguins, owls, chicks rabbits)  have been so popular, I decided to make some silly-shaped apples. 

They can be used as anchor chart posters, large flashcards, a bulletin board, and assessment tools.

Make extra sets and use them for independent centers and games. 

Children can also choose their favorite shape and make a shapely apple of their own.  A shape attributes worksheet is also included.

As you can see by the photo, some of the apples have the various shapes as their "core" (I think they turned out really cute, if I do say so for myself.)

Others are big and the entire apple takes on that shape. The shape word is a little hard to see in the photos, but they appear on all of the apple shapes.

I've included all of the 2D shapes, as well as four 3D shapes.  There's also directions for a fun "Four Corners" apple game that my students just LOVE.  Click on the link to view/download the 41-page Shapely Apples packet.

Thanks for visiting today.  I'm about appled out.  If you'd like to see all of the other apple FREEBIES to help celebrate your apple week, simply scroll down.

It's time for a much-needed break.  I'm off to get some clothes on. (Don't you just love relaxing jammie days?) It's date night with my hubby, and that requires some makeup.  Wishing you a wonderful weekend. 

"If it weren't for the last minute, I wouldn't get everything done!"

1-2-3 Come Do Some Apple Investigations With Me

Yesterday's articles featured all sorts of apple craftivities.  Today's apples incorporate a bit of science and math.  Whenever I started a themed unit, I always began by reading some interesting books. 

To cover all sorts of genre, I included fiction as well as non fiction stories, and sprinkled in some poems and songs too.  To get a list of my apple books, click on the link.  Another thing I did, was to do some research of my own.

One of my favorite things about the Internet, is the incredible amount of material on the web.  People have spent hours sharing their knowledge and ideas, and I'm grateful. 

I absolutely LOVE doing research and finding out interesting information about the things my students will be studying.  I'm always amazed at the amount of "cool stuff" that I also learn along the way. 

While doing research for my apple unit, I compiled a list of 125 interesting facts about apples, and thought I'd share it with you. 

Highlight the facts you want to share with your students.  After you read the information, test students' comprehension, by having them write 3 facts down on the recording sheet that's provided. 

They could also add facts to some of the art projects discussed yesterday, like writing information on a paper chain for the 3D apple "dangler" activity.  Click on the link to grab your copy of the 125 Interesting Apple Facts.

A quick, easy and fun way to get some science into your lessons, is to cover the life cycle of an apple. 

For hands-on learning, I've designed 4 different "craftivities" to show the life cycle of an apple. 

Completed projects make awesome bulletin boards, or decorations for your hallway. (Suspend them from the ceiling, as a border along a wall.)

The first packet features an apple, apple pie, and apple tree option. 

You can choose which you feel is most age-appropriate, or give older students a choice.  Click on the link for the Life Cycle of an Apple packet. 

This packet will be FREE for an entire year (!) after which time, it will be up-dated and rolled into my 33-page Life Cycle of an Apple Activities packet in my TpT shop.

The fourth option, is an apple "dangler" because once completed, it looks terrific dangling from the ceiling. 

I made it 3 dimensional by doubling up on the tree and apple cut outs (folding and gluing them together) and making the apple blossom out of a coffee filter that I edged with pink marker.  

Click on the link for the Life Cycle of an Apple Dangler craft.

Finally, for some apple math activities, I designed the apple investigations packet.  It will help your students learn about measurement.

Children measure height, weight, width and circumference of their apple. They trace and write vocabulary-building words, predict, answer questions, plus collect and analyze data.

As you can see, a lot of standards are covered in this simple booklet.  Click on the link above, to grab your FREEBIE.  

Thanks for visiting today.  Feel free to PIN away.  For another fun writing prompt "craftivity" scroll down to the next blog article to take a look at the Johnny Appleseed packet.

I'm writing this early Saturday morning so that it will automatically go live on Sunday.  I really try to limit my computer time on the weekends.  Having family coming over for a day of swimming, certainly helps me "behave".  I'm off to get ready for some memory-making fun. 

"You can count the seeds in an apple, but you can't count the apples in a seed." -Unknown

1-2-3 Come Study Johnny Appleseed With Me!

I've had several requests for some activities about Johnny Appleseed, so I designed this 10-page packet, which will help your students develop their writing skills. 

The Packet Includes:

• A fact sheet about Johnny Appleseed that the teacher reads.

• 2 Johnny Appleseed's Pot Hat "craftivities" to test comprehension.  Run off the template on card stock.  Students cover it with aluminum foil. They write in their answers on the "pot handle" strips, trim and staple to make a "flip for facts" booklet about Johnny Appleseed. 

• If you'd like to make this extra special, take a head shot of each child and enlarge it to 8x10.  Students glue their cooking pot to the top of their head.  If you don't want to use a photo, have students draw a self-portrait. Instead of Johnny Appleseed on the hat, they write their name + Appleseed.

•  To further test comprehension, I've included a "Tell me 3 facts about Johnny Appleseed" writing prompt.
• A "Write 5 adjectives describing Johnny Appleseed"graphic organizer will also show what students have learned.
• A Johnny Appleseed graphing extension reinforces other standards and allows children to share their opinions, as well as get to know each other better.

Click on the link to view/download the Johnny Appleseed packet.  If you're looking for other Johnny Appleseed activities, I spent several hours searching for some interesting things for my readers.  

To help learn some basic facts, and include singing into your day, there's a Johnny Appleseed song on YouTube that's under 2 minutes. A while back, Disney came out with a Johnny Appleseed movie.  It's only 17 minutes long and can be viewed on YouTube. This would make a nice culminating activity to your Johnny Appleseed studies.

I use coloring pages to make worksheets with letters, numbers, shapes etc.  I also turn them into math sheets and connect the dots via skip counting. When my students are done with the task at hand, they can color the picture.  I'm always on the lookout for coloring pages that fit my theme.  A Johnny Appleseed coloring page can be found at this link.  Martin also has a Johnny Appleseed coloring page, as well as education world.

 Thanks for visiting today.  Feel free to PIN away.  If you'd like to take a peek at all of the awesome educational items that I spend a portion of my day pinning, click on the heart button to your right.

"I keep six honest serving men; they taught me all I know; their names are What and Why and When and How and Where and Who." -Rudyard Kipling