1-2-3 Come Make An Apple Craftivity With Me

Apples is one of my favorite fall themes. 

For those of you who are familiar with my work, you know I love dabbling with a "play on words" to add a smile and interest to activities.

 

"'A-peel-ing' Apples" is that kind of craftivity, as the "peel" is a spiral, which provides excellent fine motor practice, and looks amazing dangling from the ceiling!

It's a quick, easy & super-fun apple craft that covers a variety of standards.

 

This is also an interesting way for your students to learn more about their classmates, as there never seems to be enough time for all of the fun "getting to know you" activities for back-to-school.

 

I like to do at least one "learning about each other" activity each month, to help continue to build community & the cameraderie which comes from that.

 

An added bonus is that completed projects make an outstanding display, as the apples swirl & twirl from the ceiling.

 

You’re sure to get a ton of compliments as this apple craft has the “Wow!” factor.

I’ve included a variety of posters to not only enhance your display, but to help introduce the lesson, and teach older kiddos a bit about nouns & adjectives, as this lesson is easily diversified for a variety of grade levels, from kindergartners on up.

 

Spirals: My kiddos are absolutely fascinated watching me demonstrate how to “follow the line, staying on the road” as I cut my spiral and the “peel” begins to dangle down.

Cutting out a spiral is a great way to strengthen those finger muscles, and evaluate your students “listening & following directions” skill too. 

 

TIP: Cutting is so much easier, if you demonstrate what you want your kiddos to do.

I tell my students to "Stay on the road and cut on the dark line."

 

I also have a room helper cut around the spiral, instead of leaving it in a square (see photo).

 

It is less confusing for little ones to know where to start, if they are just cutting on one line.

 

I've also made a pattern for your left-handed kiddos as well.

Grab that teachable SCIENCE moment, to reinforce the “parts of an apple” with the various pieces used to assemble the finished project.

 

Creating apples in red, yellow & green also practices the fact that an apple’s skin comes in more than one color too.

 

There are a variety of options for you to choose from to make differentiating easy-peasy.

There are 4 different apple writing prompt options. 

 

There are also 2 “apple toppers” pictured on the right.

Younger kiddos can simply jot down one thing they find “a-peeling” while older students can create a list to practice that writing standard.

Preschool kiddos can dictate their answers to a room helper, or you can make this a homework assignment, where parents can assist their child. 

I use the definition poster to teach what the word “appealing” means, then explain the play-on-words of an apple peel, showing them that the spiral represents the peeling of the apple.

We brainstorm a bit about all sorts of things we find appealing. Children think about one thing they find appealing then write it on the blank circle and illustrate it.  

This is a super-fun project to do with older reading buddies; my kinders work with a 5th grader who can help them with spelling. 

I've provided 4 styles of paper patterns for students to write on and then glue under their apple or topper. The paper patterns are long and narrow; perfect for making a list.

Students can simply make up their own list, or you can read the "Tell me Ten" response worksheet.

For example, one of the questions is  "What color do you find appealing?"

 

Students take far less time with a structured format such as this, and you can include the question worksheet as part of your display.

You can use my sample questions, or create your own.

 

When displaying student work, the apple-topped lists can be hung back-to-back, then suspended from the ceiling.

A "whole apple" list, can also be hung singly, or back-to-back.

If you're going to do this, have one student glue their "peel" to the top  or side of their apple, while the other child glues theirs to the bottom of their paper.

 

Extend the lesson and have children draw a picture to illustrate their answers, by using the blank, white "center", which they can glue to the back of their apple.

 

The yellow apple sample pictured on the right, uses a template that has students complete the sentence with an animal, color & activity they find appealing.

 

The red apple pictured on the left, reinforces nouns, and has students complete the sentence with a person, place and thing that they find appealing.

 

Remind kiddos to add end punctuation when completing the sentences. (Woo hoo another standard practiced!)

 

If you're doing this with older students, they can write their own, complete sentences. 

 

Patterns come in black & white, as well as full color, so that teachers can quickly and easily make an example to share.

 

Be sure and make a personal one, so that students can learn more about their teacher too.

 

To save time, I’ve also included my completed patterns.

 

Today's featured FREEBIE also has an apple theme.

It's an "Aa is for apple" alphabet wheel. 

It's the first in a series of 26, ABC letter wheels.  I hope you enjoy it.

Well that's it for today.  Thanks for stopping by. 

The sun has finally ventured out after an all-day deluge of rain, so it's time to take my poodle pup Chloe, for a walk!

Wishing you a fun-filled week.

 "Anyone can count the seeds in an apple; only God can count the apples in one seed." -Robert H. Schuller

1-2-3 Come Do Some Fall Writing With Me

Since the "Apple Sense" craftivity was downloaded quite a bit, I decided this format would also work well for Pumpkin Sense.   No matter what grade your students are in, they need to be reminded to use their senses to make their writing "come alive."  The use of adjectives is equally important, and such a simple thing to explain using examples.  I find that if students can add a bit of art to their creations, writing is more fun and completed projects make wonderful bulletin boards that build self-esteem.   

Run off the pumpkin template on orange construction paper.  Students add a bit of color to the the stem, with a green crayon.  You can make this even cuter, by having students trace their hand (with their fingers spread) onto a sheet of green construction paper, trim and glue their "leaf" next to the stem.  Adding a photograph gives things that finishing touch.

Run the "pumpkin guts" off on yellow construction paper.  Students trim and fill in their answers.  Before hand, discuss the 5 senses, as well as what an adjective is, explaining the importance of using both to write better.  

Brainstorm words that can be used to describe a pumpkin using the various senses and write them on the board.   Students can draw from this word bank when they write. 

So that they are practicing starting a sentence with a capital letter, have students write a complete sentence, rather than filling in their answer.  Review proper end punctuation.  To make sure that they use adjectives, encourage students to underline them.

You may want children to write a rough draft, checking to make sure that every noun has a descriptive word before it.  Can they think of a better word to describe what they are seeing, feeling, tasting, smelling, etc?  When they are satisfied with their final draft, they can write it on the yellow insert.   Click on the link to view/download the Pumpkin Sense craftivity.

Continuing with adjective practice, I designed a Describing Fall packet. 

Students think of words that describe the various fall themes: school, apples, leaves, pumpkins, spiders, bats, scarecrows, sunflowers, turkeys and Pilgrims, and then fill in the appropriate boxes with adjectives.  Once they have done that, students incorporate several words into 1 or 2 sentences that they write on the back of their worksheet. 

Children can add a bit of color with crayons or markers.  When everyone is done, have them share their work.  I've also included a definition of an adjective anchor chart. Click on the link to view/download the Describing Fall Adjective Writing packet.

If you're looking for more activities involving the 5 Senses you may like Sam's Senses craftivity.  Children cut and glue the labels to Sam the pumpkin man.  What makes Sam special is that his hands are the traced hands of the student.  Click on the link to view/download Sam. 

My Fall Senses, is a quick and easy candy corn graphic organizer that again helps students practice their writing skills.  Click on the link to view download this fall writing activity.

Thanks for visiting today.  I design and write daily, so I hope you can stop by tomorrow for the newest FREEBIES.  Feel free to PIN away.  To ensure that "pinners" return to THIS blog article, click on the green title at the top; it will turn black, now click on the "Pin it" button on the burgundy menu bar.   If you'd like to take a look at all of the wonderful-educational items that I PIN, click on the heart button to the right of the blog. 

"Strength: A river cuts through a rock not because of its power, but because of its persistence." -Unknown

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.)

Thanks for visiting today.  Feel free to PIN away.  To ensure that "pinners" return to THIS blog article, click on the green title at the top; it will turn black, now click on the "Pin it" button on the menu bar. 

If you'd like to look at all of the awesome educational items, I spend way too much time pinning, click on the heart to the right of the blog.

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