1-2-3 Do Some Apple-icious Activities With Me!

As I stated in the article after this, I wanted to finish up with all of the apple requests I've had this month, and move on to some other fall theme, so I put lots of apple FREEBIES in the blog today, that I hope you and your students will enjoy.  Click on the "We Love Studying About Apples!" to grab your free poster.

Part of our morning, was spent doing "table top" activities, where students worked independently on various standards and skills. 

With this in mind, I created the Caramel Apple Letter Find.  Students find the capital letter A's and color them red; they color the lowercase a's yellow, and any Cc (for caramel) letter green.  Click on the link to view/download it.

I'd also reinforce letter and number recognition, by playing "I Spy" games.  Teacher starts out by calling out a letter/number. 

Students find it, and either trace or color the apple, and then raise their hand.  Teacher then calls on a quiet student to choose the next letter/numbered apple to find. Click on the link to view/print "I Spy a Letter!" apple game. 

Besides "I Spy" my students enjoyed playing dice games.  This helps with counting and number recognition, and simple addition for older students.

Click on the link to view/print the Apples On A Roll dice game.

To help increase my students' vocabulary, I always had themed words to add to our word wall. 

I encouraged my first graders to refer to the wall when they'd write. Understanding, and using adjectives, is also very important to build good writing skills. 

I designed Apple Adjectives to help with that. There's a black and white version for students to fill in, as well as a completed one in color, to use as an example or anchor chart.  I found that graphic organizers were extremely helpful for prewriting, so I designed an apple one, so students could write in descriptive words.  Click on the link to view/download the Apple Adjective packet. 

Finally, a Venn diagram is extremely useful, in helping students grasp the concept of comparison and contrast.  Once there's understanding and a framework, students will write better. 

Because we study pumpkins shortly after our apple unit, I thought it would be especially helpful to compare a pumpkin to an apple, using a Venn diagram.  Click on the link to view/download the Apple-Pumpkin Venn Diagram. 

If you're looking for some short, but informative YouTube videos on Apples, I spent the better part of a morning watching quite a few.  Here are my favorites: The Life Cycle Of An Apple is put to music in this 2-minute catchy video.

The familiar, 5 Little Apples story-song, is "pumped up" with a rap beat your kiddo's will enjoy, (1:47 minutes.) as well as the "I Love Apples" fact-rap. (2:04 minutes.)

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"The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows." -Sydney J. Harris 

An Apple (Activity) A Day Keeps Boredom Away!

One of my favorite units that I did with my Y5’s was APPLES.

I think they really enjoyed it too, as visiting an apple orchard and picking 3 different kinds of apples was our first fieldtrip.

I feel it’s important to have lots of hands-on centers for little ones, to help them increase fine motor skills through cutting and gluing.

Doing centers helps with a variety of life skills and forces them to listen in order to follow directions.

As they become independent, they are empowered and their self-esteem soars.

Seeing their creations hung on our “Wall of Fame” in the hallway, also helped give them a sense of pride.

Knowing I was going to display their work, was a good incentive, to give their best effort.

Through art, I could also incorporate reading, writing, math, and science; sometimes all of them in one quick project, which covered a variety of report card standards.

The 92 – page Apple Art Projects Book has a large variety of activities in it and includes directions, patterns and pictures.

These make terrific center activities, something for students to do when they have completed other work, a nice home-school connection project to be given as homework, or something to tuck in your substitute folder.

The results are wonderful back to school bulletin boards, or hallway and door displays.  Some can be suspended from the ceiling.

The crayon-melt apple poem was one of my favorites.

The poem introduced my students to rhyme; the rhyme taught them the science fact they needed to learn about apples; twisting the 3 color crayons through a sharpener was a terrific fine motor skill, and the result after I put a sheet of wax paper over their shavings and applied a warm iron was awesome!

I also reinforced the 3 colors with this rip and tear apple, which strengthened finger muscles as well.

Students enjoyed making the Life Cycle of an Apple on a paper plate, which was a quick and easy way to get some science in.

Click on the link to view/download the Apple Art Projects Packet.

Thanks for visiting today. I hope you can stop by tomorrow for more back to school ideas.

Do you have an apple activity that you could share with us?  I’d enjoy hearing from you! diane@teachwithme.com or take a moment and post a comment here.

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“We should say to each [child]: Do you know what you are? You are a marvel.  You are unique -- you may become a Shakespeare, a Michelangelo, a Beethoven. 

You have the capacity for anything!” –Pablo Casals