Apples, Apples, and MORE APPLES!!!!!!

I have been going crazy over apples for the last two weeks.  Normally, I only do an apple theme for one week, but my timing was off on Johnny Appleseed Day, so I stretched it out to two weeks.  AND, some dear friends made some incredible apple activities, that I had to use with my kids.  Whenever I do a theme in my class, I love to incorporate it across all subjects so it really sinks in with the little ones!

I started by reading different apple books that I have collected over the years.  Our first apple thing was to dissect and taste an apple.  I have an ELMO (a fancy projector that I can put an object under it and it shines up on the board), that I used to show me cutting open an apple, and we explored the inside together.  I made this little apple labeling craft for the kids to make...

Then we tasted a red and green apple, and graphed which color they liked the best!  We placed a slice of a red and green apple in a small cup, and passed them out to the students.  They ate the apples, then I gave them a blank apple printable.  They were to color it whatever apple color tasted the best to them!

Since I had already cut apples to show them the inside and to do our taste test, I busted out the paints during free time for the students to do an apple stamping project.  

I made a traceable sentence strip that said, "I see apples" for the students to race and glue onto their art project.  Our sight words for the week were "I, see" so this sentence was perfect for us!

I was able to conduce two science experiments using one of Hadar's apple units.  We tested to see if apples and seeds sunk or floated.  The kids were so excited about testing to see what would happen to the apples and seeds.  I did these experiments on two different days, and each time the kids were engaged and excited to test their hypothesis!

First, we graphed our predictions: would the apple sink or float?

Then I gathered the students around, filled a clear storage tub, and dropped our apple in!  We recorded our findings on a sheet that is included in the apple unit.  On a different day, we tested to see if the seeds would sink or float... We graphed our hypotheses!

I dropped the seeds in our clear tub...

And the students were SO EXCITED to see what happened to the seeds!

Here is a sample of the recording sheet that we filled out as a class to show what our findings were.

On Johnny Appleseed Day, we made A Cupcake for the Teacher's Johnny Appleseed Craft!  I had them write "I see apples" in the middle of the craft to practice our sight words for the week! :)

These little guys turned out SO CUTE, I am obsessed with them!  Today, we practiced matching upper and lower case letters using part of my Apple Unit.  I placed all of the upper case letters in the pocket chart, and the students matched the lower case letter beneath them.  

I hope you enjoyed some of our apple activities! I know the kids sure did! :)

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Monthly Vocabulary Cards

Last year, I realized that I wasn't using my vocabulary pocket chart as much as I should have been.  We have a monthly theme in language arts, but I also use themes that go along with the holidays and seasons.  I made 12 sets of vocabulary cards that I can use throughout the year.  I will keep a vocabulary pocket chart up near my Word Wall and Writing Center for the students to refer to when they are writing.  Here is a picture of my vocabulary pocket chart...

Each month (or more) I will switch out the words for a new theme.  Here are some examples of the other vocabulary words:

I made a bundled set of 12 themes, with 145 vocabulary words total.  I also included a recording sheet for each theme, that can be used for a "Write the Room" activity.  You can view all of the words included in this vocabulary pack at my TpT Store.  The 12 themes that are included are:

September Words

Zoo Words

 Transportation Words

Fall Words

America Words

Insect Words

 Family Words

Farm Words

 March Words

Ocean Words

 Spring Words

Winter Words

You can pick up the Monthly Vocabulary Card Pack at my TpT Store.

Here are what the other cards look like...

Ocean Words

America Words

Farm Words

March Words

Fall Words

Family Words

Spring Words

Winter Words

Insect Words

Stop by my Tpt Store if you can use these in your classroom! :)

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Chicka Chicka Boom Boom!!!

The book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom is one of my FAVORITE books to start out the year with.  It is great because it is a fun book that talks about all of the upper and lower case letters.  There is also a cute youtube video that you can play to get the kids to sing and say the words with you.

I made a bulletin board displaying our Chicka Chicka Boom Boom craft...

I made a palm tree craft, and the students had to find the foam letter stickers that were in their name, and place the stickers on the coconut tree.  I had the students make the palm tree craft as whole group instruction, and then during center time, I set a bunch of foam letters out, and they placed the stickers on their tree.  The kids that finished early, helped their friends look for letters in their name.

Last year, I found this freebie from someone's blog.  I found round stickers in the Target Dollar Bin, and thought they would work perfect with this worksheet!  The students had to find the upper case sticker to match the lower case letter on the printable.  This took them about 10 minutes, and no one had a meltdown!  

On a whim I decided to do a directed drawing of the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom palm tree.  I wanted to see how their listening skills were, and if they could follow my directions to make the picture.  They actually did a really good job at drawing the palm tree!  Once they were done, I told them to write letters going up the tree.

We had a fun week at introducing the letters using this book!

I am excited to link up with Kindergarten Lifestyle to share letter identification or printing ideas!

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Fall 10 Frame Center

I bought some adorable little plastic pumpkins at the Target Dollar Bin (which are supposed to be used for table confetti), and I made a 10 Frame mat to go with it.  Of course, I left the little pumpkins at work, so I used some Halloween erasers that I had at home to take pictures with.  I am going to use these for October and November as one of our math centers.  The students will use the mats to place fall manipulatives in the 10 Frame boxes.

Here is the Fall 10 Frame Centers Pack.  It includes a mat for numbers 1-10, a recording sheet to check for understanding, and printable small pumpkins if you don't have manipulatives that you can use in your classroom.  And of course, it is aligned to the Common Core Math Standards for you! :)

{TpT Store}

I am having a fall sale until September 24, so head to my Tpt Store to stock up on some goodies! ;)

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