1-2-3 Come Do Some Apple and Pumpkin Activities With Me!

One of the much-needed skills for little ones, is the ability to cut.  Just learning how to hold a scissors is quite an accomplishment for some.  To help my Y5's strengthen their hand muscles and increase dexterity, I incorporated cutting practice in some form or another every day.  To make this less tedious and frustrating, many of the activities revolved around creating a craft that included other skills as well.

Keeping this in mind, I designed "A-peel-ing Apples" so children could practice cutting in a circle.  This is a wonderful opportunity to add the term spiral to students' vocabulary as well.  Giving a red, yellow or lime green color choice for the apple, also reinforces that science fact. 

To add a bit more pizzazz, older students can glue two different colors together.  The thicker paper lessens the drop of the spiral, and the double-sided colors add interest to the dangler.  Students glue a stem and leaf to the top.  Punch a hole; add a yarn loop and suspend from the ceiling, or as a border against a hallway wall.  Click on the link to view/download the A-peel-ing Apples activity.

Cutting on a straight line is also not that easy for some little ones. These apple and pumpkin "strip" puzzles, will not only give your students practice with that skill, but review and reinforce sequencing numbers from 1-10, skip counting by 10's, or counting backwards from 10-1. I've used a dashed-line font, for the numbers on the apples and pumpkins, so that students can get some writing practice in.  Encourage children to count quietly as they trace the numbers.

Simply choose a number concept you want to work on and run off the puzzles on construction paper.  Children choose a puzzle; trace the numbers; cut the strips, lay them in the proper sequence on a sheet of black construction paper, and then glue them down. 

Remind students to keep a small space between the strips.  Students add a stem and leaf to the top.  You can make the pumpkin more of a keepsake, by having children, or a room helper, trace their hand, with their fingers spread, onto green construction paper.  They trim and glue next to their stem.  Completed projects make a sweet harvest bulletin board.

You may want to laminate one of each kind, to keep in your math center.  Each puzzle has its own Baggie.  Children can work indepently, or pick a partner to play "Speed" against.  The first one who completes their puzzle, is the winner.  Click on the link to view/download the Apple and Pumpkin Number Puzzles.

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"Imagination is the highest kite one can fly." -Lauren Bacall

10 pages. Common Core State Standard: 1.G.3

Help students understand beginning fractions by cutting up an apple. As you cut from whole, to half, and then into quarters, explain each fraction. To further reinforce math vocabulary, students assemble their own apple fraction "flip up" booklet .  A trace & write mini apple fraction booklet is also included, along with apple fraction pocket or word wall word cards.

1-2-3 Come Write About Apples With Me!

Increase your students' writing skills with this quick and easy apple "craftivity."   Before hand, brainstorm a list of adjectives that describe apples.  For a source of correct spelling, as well as ideas, write the words on the board to be used as a word bank, for your students to refer to as they write their "Apple Sense."  Encourage them to use at least one adjective for each section. 

Review what the 5 senses are and discuss them as they apply to apples.  So students know what to do, and can independently get to work, make an example of your own to share.

To add that finishing touch, have students glue their school picture to the leaf.  These make an "apple-icious" bulletin board.  Your caption could be:  A Crop/Bushel of Great Work or Mr(s). _______________ 's Students Get To The Core Of Writing. You could also punch a hole in the stem, and suspend the apples back-to-back from the ceiling.

Click on the link to view/download the Apple Sense Writing Activity. This activity will be FREE for an entire year, after which time it will be up-dated & become part of my 30-page, Apple Sense: Science & Writing Craftivities packet in my TpT shop.

Thanks for visiting today.  As always, feel free to PIN away.  I'm off to enjoy some summer sunshine.

"I find that a great part of the information I have acquired, was by looking up something and finding something else along the way." -Franklin P. Adams  

(This is so true for me, especially when I'm researching something on the Internet or Pinerest!  One thing definitely leads to another as the day flies by!)

Back-To-School-Apple Glyph:  

I LOVE glyphs.  They are the perfect activity for "listening and following directions!"  Plus, a back-to-school glyph can really help teachers get to know their students.

No matter what the age group, students seem to really enjoy making a glyph.  Glyphs are also a nice way to decorate a hallway wall and get other students reading to see if they can discover whose glyph it is. 

Click on the link to view/print the back-to-school apple glyph.

Apple Tasting Mats & Graph:

The study of apples is one of our science units.  One of the facts I teach my students is that apples come in three colors: red, green and yellow.

It's fun for them to taste the 3 different kinds of apples and then have them decide which is their favorite and graph the results.

I'm not only teaching science, but incorporating math and including snack time!  What a great use of time as I cover a variety of report card standards and subjects!

One of the problems I had was that when I layed out the different chunks of apple, children couldn't tell which was the red, yellow or green one, so I designed a little mat for them to color.

This will reinforce listening and following directions, ordinal numbers, colors, that particular science fact and later, they can use it for snack time when you put their 3 different apple pieces on the mat for them to taste.

Click on the link for the apple tasting mat and graph.

Apple Pinch & Poke:

For those of you who use my themed-center activities, you know how important Pinch & Pokes are to me.  My Y5 students transition from table top to centers.

Pinch & Pokes are one of my consistent centers.  Students get a P&P, take it to the carpet along with a large tack or golf tee, and follow the pattern by poking a hole in each dot to make a picture.

If they hold their paper up to the ceiling and shine a flashlight on their picture they will see a "star print" on the ceiling at night.

P&P's are great for building upper body strength as well as increasing finger dexterity, finger and hand muscle strength and coordination and are a fun fine motor skill that students really enjoy.

Click on the link to view/print an apple pinch and poke. Run it off on red, yellow and lime green copy paper to reinforce the various colors of an apple.

Appealing Apples:

One of the vocabulary words that I teach my students is spiral.  Learning to cut on a spiral is a great fine motor skill.

Run these apple spirals off on red, yellow & lime green construction paper.  Have students glue the top end to their white apple and let them dangle down from the ceiling.

They double as an introduction to autumn poetry/rhyming words, cover science, review the a & e vowels, as well as help students who are learning how to write and identify their name, + they make a darling hallway display that's sure to help build your students' self-esteem when they see their photograph and work displayed for all to view. 

What a fun way to cover a lot of "stuff!"

Click on the link to see/print the Appealing Apple patterns.

Whatever arts, crafts and activities you're planning to do during the month of September,  I hope they are simply apple-icious!

These activites will be FREE through the month of September and then they will be for sale in an Apple Activity Booklet for only .59 cents.

As always, if you have a creative idea that you do, I'd enjoy hearing from you. diane@teachwithme.com