Apple Projects All Week and Free Math Page

Last year I put my apple week projects together for TPT.  Well, that works out well for me too.  Everything was all set for me this year.

We started the week using attributes to sort the apples we each brought to school (see big apple above).  I've got a great big canvas graphing chart that a previous teacher left. It works perfectly for making graphs with objects. previous apple blog post.

I planted myself at the Science Station and helped students examine apples using their 5 senses. What does an apple smell like? Kids thought GRASS, JUICE and HANDS. We worked together to fill out our Lab Reports.

Together we made accordion math books: cut, color, glue and label.

Once again Hiding the Worm was a favorite station.  The kids love hiding the worm behind an apple with a Sight Word or Letter Sound. Then their peers have to name the word or sound to see if the worm is behind.

This Fine Motor project was completed following picture and word directions - no teacher help. Pretty darn good (someone always has to put on way too many seeds).

We started writing our non-fiction books and will be finishing them next week.  Next year I am setting aside TWO weeks for apple projects. 

FREE Math Practice Page - Skills: count apples to 5, which has more

Another Apple Idea

Our new reading series has a lesson on positional words. A boring dull lesson that uses pictures in a book. In keeping with our apple theme this week, I die cut apples out of red card stock and made worms out of yarn. We punched a hole in the apple. We added tape on one end of the yarn for easy threading and a face.

The students sat around the edge of the rug (perimeter sit) and then LISTENed. I asked them to move their worm into different positions. A little story could be made up as well. Our lesson had the students putting the worm through, beside, over, . . . . . the apple.  We sent the apple and worm home with a note home for parents with all the directional words too.

Simple, fun and effective!

Click note above to get your own copy of parent note.

Apples Apples Apples

We completed our week of fun Apple themed activities. I think I spent more time compiling the activities into a TPT product (Appletini) than we spent on the activities in class. But we did learn lots. Apples were especially good for informational non-fiction writing.

Some highlights:

Everyone brought in an apple.

We made a graph with our apples. Then we transferred the data to our own graphs.

We used our 5 senses to examine and explore the apples. Yummy.

We made projects - simply by following written directions.

We wrote non-fiction books.

We played "Find the Worm."  Which we LOVED!

We even managed to play a math game that was fun AND hit the common core math standards HARD!

Find it all on TPT in my Appletini (not quite a month of Apple) Apple Activities (Appletini)