Young Learners: Apples

I created a new preschool unit, this week, that I've never done before. Apple week was a success! Here is some of the apple fun we had. 

Sensory: Apple taste test

We sampled red, yellow, and green apples. Which one is your favorite? 

Math: favorites chart. Our class likes red apples best and yellow apples least. 

Math: Apple sort. I bought a set of sorting apples and we categorized them by color, then by size, then by characteristics (stem, leaf, worm). 

Dramatic Play: Apple Pie bakery! The kids had aprons and whisks, oven mitts, a kitchen, and wooden sliceable apples to fill Melissa and Doug apple pies with. Delicious! 

Motor Skills: cranking out some apple spirals in the apple peeler slicer corer. This was great fun. 

Cooking: homemade applesauce 

I provided potato mashers and they smashed those spirals to smithereens. We put them in a pot on a hot plate, added some sugar and cinnamon, and had a hot apple snack. 

Science: Apple growth cycle. We read "I am an Apple" and followed the apple from seed to blossom to yummy fruit. 

History: who was Johnny Appleseed? 

Silly Mrs Meg wore a pot on her head and we read about Johnathan Chapman and his contribution to American pioneers. 

Literature: Ten Apples Up On Top by Dr Seuss

After reading this fun book, I traced each of the children on butcher paper. How cute is Soren's curly haired silhouette?!  

Then, they counted out ten apples each and glued them on their own heads, shoulders, and fingertips, just like the silly animals in the book! 

Young Learners: I Live in a House

Literature: The Three Little Pigs, The House that Jack Built, The Best Nest, Where Do I Live?, Maisy's House

Dramatic Play: I pulled out the big 3 Little Pig house backdrops that I painted years ago. They still provide so much fun with this unit every year. I failed to take a single picture of them, but there are pics of them from past years on the blog, so good enough ;)

I also had a flannel board story of the 3 Little Pigs. Can you believe only 1 out of 6 children recognized the story? They were horrified that the big bad wolf would eat the big, or destroy his home. Kids books are too soft, these days! Haha Gotta pull out the classics for a bad guy--especially one that meets his demise in a pot in the fireplace at the end of the book!  

 

H is for Handy men and women. They hammered, sawed, screwed, painted, measured, painted and fixed everything in our classroom today! The toy tool collection seems to grow every year. I need to invest in a little workbench.

H is for House

We build a town of log cabins 

Music: The House that Jack Built, My Hat Has 3 Corners

Fine Motor: house stencils

Fine Motor: House Puzzles. The children match mother animals with their babies and homes. For example, mama rabbit with baby bunnies in a bunny hutch. 

Math: Doghouse Pattern Bingo

This was a fun group activity. It's like a combo of tic tac toe and bingo. The children draw cards with a color, pattern, or shape on them, and then place a dog on their sheet (with 9 doghouse so it, each sporting different colors, patterns, and shape tags on them). Three doghouses in a row wins!

Snack: before we loaded up the plates with banana circles and more pretzels, the kids made a letter H with pretzel sticks. 

Art: painting birdhouses. I have a puppet set of birds and a wooden birdhouse for when we read The Best Nest by P.D. Eastman. The kids painted their own "best nests" and I interviewed each totall me about where they live for the class book. 

Young Learners: I Can Get Ready for Bed

We had a pajama party at preschool today! 

Soren with the pillowcase he made at preschool. 

We read books about bedtime and night time and the children told me about their bedtime routines. 

We drew letter H on aqua doodle mats

Dramatic Play: I set up kinder mats, crib mistresses, the parachute, two pop up tents and two play tunnels all around the room for a big pretend pajama slumber party!  Basically, the entire classroom was a giant fort. 

Fine motor: We made circle bracelets with circle cereal 

Moon rocker balance game. This little moon sits on its back and the children roll dice to see what color weight to add. Don't let it tip over! We played by flashlight, of course. 

Art: this was a fun one: Personalized pillowcases! It takes no small amount of courage to tie dye with 8 preschoolers, but they did a really great job!!  What could make going to bed more fun than using a special pillow? 

I'm loving all the texts I'm getting from moms of the finished results! 

Sensory: light and dark. We read Hood Morning, Goodnight and each of the children had a flashlight. We turned the lights on for good morning pages, and off for good night pages. 

Sensory: lullaby music and light tables it doesn't show well in the photo, but the light travels through the translucent magnatiles and made the children's creations light up! I wish I had taken a pic when the room lights were still out.