All About Apples! An Apple Finale!

I like to end my study of Apples with a day of cooking in the classroom. There is always so much joy when I bring a cooking activity into the classroom. Magic seems to fill the air while curiosity and engagement fill the students eyes. Plus, an added bonus if you make something with a delectable aroma such as this delicious and easy Applesauce Recipe!

I must admit, I found this recipe from Persnickety Plates. I love to cook, but I am still a novice in creating my own recipes! Thank goodness for blogs like hers!

This freebie is included with my Johnny Appleseed product (read more here) as well as my Bushel and a Peck of Numbers (read more here) all together in my All About Apples Bundle here!

     

Check out all the details below!

Keep your head in the clouds!

Happy Birthday Johnny Appleseed!

One of the reasons I love to do apples at that the start of the year is because the unit hits a crescendo on September 26th in celebration of Johnny Appleseed's birthday! I've put together some of my favorite activities I use to celebrate one of America's beloved characters.

I love teaching new topics with coloring book mini books. They offer visuals to help understand the writing and they're perfect for children to turn to and color for independent work when they are early finishers. 

There's of course, an apple investigation! I have two options for greater differentiation. There is a one sheet option as well as a mini book containing each activity from the investigation on individual pages. You can read more about my Apple Investigations here. If you're interested in just downloading the Apple Investigation single sheet, you can do so by clicking here.

I love ending Apple Investigations with Apple Tasting! I bring in a few apples of each color and we all taste test them together as a class. Not only is it a fun way to practice our scientific observations skills but it ties in the five senses and builds great classroom community as students have opportunities to share each other's opinions and compare their thoughts.

We also make a class graph with our favorite apples to eat! Talk about STEM in action!

There are also Literacy Resources as well! One of my favorite activities to offer Kindergartners is Color by Sight Word. I love the fine motor skills practice of coloring in smaller areas while incorporating sight word practice with color word practice.

Here's also a sneak peek at the Apple Easy Reader Mini Book that's also included:

With more pages included in the pack!

Plus a Johnny Appleseed hat and more! Is there any other activities you are sure to include when you celebrate Johnny's birthday?

Click below to download the Johnny Appleseed product from my TPT store:

If you want even MORE Apple downloads, check out my All About Apples product here:

Keep your head in the clouds!

I Love You, A Bushel and a Peck

I am ALWAYS looking to build my repertoire of center activities. They are perfect for small group work as well as early finisher activities or morning work options! This apple themed math activity is one of the first centers I pull out during Math rotations!

Download it here!

It covers all the basics of numeracy for the start of Kindergarten Math! There is numeral identification, ten frame recognition and counting, tally mark recognition and counting as well as finger counting! To top it all off, the recording sheet incorporates handwriting with numeral writing practice!

There are two separate recording sheets, one for numbers 1-10 and one for numbers 11-20. Plus, for easier differentiation, each recording sheet has a blank version and a dotted version for tracing! Don't you just love when differentiation can be made with a touch of the copy machine! Plus they look so similar, students feel like they are doing the same as their peers. I like to write names on the sheets ahead of time and sometimes I even let them choose which page they would prefer!

When it comes to center activities, I am a huge proponent for REPETITION! The first time a child is working with an activity, they are learning the HOW of it- what are the rules? How do I keep play going? What do I do if this happens? The second day is when they've mastered the how and are now focused on the content involved. For the first two times in a center, I like to have an adult running it to help answer any questions and ensure both the HOW and the CONTENT are being performed correctly. After that, I can usually put a center out as an independent rotation from time to time.

I love the ease of these to create independence early in the year- and especially love how it goes with Apples for Back to School theme, Autumn theme, or a general Apple Theme!

For even more apple fun, download my All About Apples Bundle here!

Keep your head in the clouds!

An Apple a Day

There's something about September in Kindergarten that screams TEACH ABOUT APPLES! I don't know if it's the connection to Fall and the seasons, if it's merely a tangible topic that most kids have some background knowledge on, or if it's just teachers are born with an inclination toward their career's symbolic fruit, but Apples are my favorite way to kick off Science in Kindergarten!

Our first unit in Science is mainly to teach students how to be scientists through observation. This is why I like to kick start my Apple Unit with a hands on Apple Investigation.

It's part of my Dollar Deal on Apples! You can download it as a single sheet here.

If you're using the same apple for the entire investigation, it's best to do the color, stem, leaf, and measurements first. Next, I move on to sinking or floating, and finally I end with cutting and investigating the seeds before, our fan favorite in K, the taste test!

This year, in an effort to simplify the investigation for my little ones, I decided to split my investigation into a mini book! Each piece of the investigation got it's own page. (Here's a sampling below)

I made each page a center. Students rotated through, completing and collecting pages as we went along. They LOVED building the book as we went and I saw a big difference in their concentration per each investigation. This mini book can be found in my Johnny Appleseed product here! I can't wait to showcase you even more from that later this week.

Download the single sheet Apple Investigation in my TPT store here.

If you want to explore the Mini Book, check out my Johnny Appleseed bundle in my TPT store here! (The single sheet investigation is also included in this product!)

For even more apple fun, download my All About Apples Bundle!