Apples

We have just finished a mini unit on apples. R is 3½ and M is 18 months.

Firstly, I printed some 3 part cards from abcteach, but I do not think they are available anymore, as I was unable to locate them. We used these to complete the apple labelling sheet from 2 Teaching Mommies.

We also used the apple observation sheet from 2 Teaching Mommies. I had a selection of apples to choose from. R chose one apple and we completed the sheet. M just joined in with the eating of the apples. :)

R chose another apple to draw. He placed it on his table and used it for inspiration whilst drawing. The apple card was also on his table, and he decided to write the word 'apple' on his picture. This is the first time he has purposefully written a word. We have had lots of letters come out in his drawings, but they have all been random. So this was exciting for me. I have had it stuck to the fridge ever since and have been proudly showing all the visitors that come to our house!!

We made apple trees from paper plates, toilet rolls and stickers. This was something the M could join in with, and boy, does he love to paint.

Both of the boys are into signing and nursery rhymes at the moment, so we sung "5 Red Apples" several times. I don't know where this came from. I made it a few years ago, and was unable to find it.

I made a little 1-5 counting book for R. He glued apple seeds onto each page to match the numeral on each page. He quite enjoyed this activity, next time I will make the book to go to 10, as he knows the numbers 1-5 well.

I printed the Roll and Colour Apple Tree from Kindergarten Hoppenings. This is a fantastic blog with loads of functional activities...one of my favourites! R is really getting into colouring in these days. He quite often asks for a picture to colour.

R is just beginning to understand patterning so, I made a couple of activities for his to practice this. These are from Confessions of a Homeschooler and Engaging Toddler Activities.

Also from Confessions of a Homeschooler, R did the shape matching and they both did the magnet page with pom poms. R also did the 6 piece puzzle.

R did apple size sequencing from Childcareland. Riley really gets this now, and was able to do this experience independently.

From 1+1+1=1, R did the Aa letter find with dot markers, whilst M did a dot painting. M absolutely loves the dot markers, and uses them almost everyday. Lucky they last forever!!!

We have started doing a few activities from the Ready2Read bundle by The Moffatt Girls. I love this idea and we are slowly working through the first few units. Here R coloured the -at and -an word families on the apple tree. 

Lastly, I made the boys an apple book that they completed with the dot markers. M had only 3 colours, whilst R's book contained a few facts about apples to make it a bit longer. They both loved having their own little books. 

This unit took almost 2 weeks to complete. We did a few other things too, but these were all the photos that I took. You can see my previous apples post here. 

I have just seen a wonderful apple pack from Musings Of Me. Here is the link to purchase the unit. I wish that I had seen this prior to our apple unit, I might just have to extend it another week to squeeze in some of these activities. There is a free apple book which we will do this afternoon. It uses dot markers...so I am sure it will be a hit in this house!!!  You can check out some of Michelle's other cute creations here, you will not be disappointed.

Thanks for reading

Letter Aa and Red

R is 25 months old

This was the first program the I compiled for R. I wanted to test it out before I created the whole alphabet and he really enjoyed it. So far, it has worked out well, especially after our new arrival, giving us some special 1:1 time together.

Craft
I squirted red paint onto a small paper plate and R spread it around the platewith his fingers. When he was finished, I stapled the leaf and stick on the top to make an apple. This idea came from Making Learning Fun.

I went through our collage box and gathered all the red items in there and R made a collage of red items.

I put out all our red crayons, markers, pencils and oil pastels for R to create a red drawing.

This is a bad photo, but I cut a cloud shape out of green card, and R stamped on it with circles (they were actually the paint stoppers for our paint pots) in red paint to make apples in the tree. Once dry, I stuck it onto a large piece of paper and drew on the trunk with brown crayon.

I also had apple printing planned, but we never got to it.



Fine Motor and Sensory

R loves pom poms and any related activities. R sorted all the red pom poms from our container of large pom poms. I printed and laminated the apples printable from Engaging Toddler Activities. R used tweezers to pick up small pom poms and put them onto the circles on the printout. He needed a bit of practice, but he got the hang of the tweezers.

I made some red ice blocks and put them in the water play trolley. This was a big hit and R was sad when the ice blocks melted. As it is still quite hot here, it was a great way to cool down.

We had red playdough this week. This was played with so much this week. I showed R how to roll balls to make apples. R still needs some practice with this. We pushed in some stems from real apples into the top. There was also some apple cookie cutters and an "A" cookie cutter. After laminating some stuff from Tot School Printables, we rolled 'snakes' and lay them on the Aa's on the"Main Letter Sheet". I encouraged R to trace the playdough with his finger to get the shape of the Aa.

We also used the lacing card and Aa apple puzzle.

I collected some of our red blocks from our wooden block set and put them in a bowl on the shelf for the week.

I set out some red apples on the mat for R to explore. I used 5 apples, all different varieties. We talked about the different reds in all the apples and counted them. We tried to stack them, but were not very successful.

Maths

We used the apple sequencing cards from Tot School Printables.

Shapes and Colours
A while ago, I made the Colour Sorting Station from Home Grown Hearts but R can sort the colours easily now, so I have been coming up with new ideas to use them. I hid all the red items around the house and gave R a red plate to go and find them all. As this was the first time we have done this, I 'hid' them quite obviously, and R got the hang of the game quickly. Next time I will be a bit more creative with my hiding places.

Cooking
We cooked apple muffins and ate lots of apples.

Music and Movement/Gross Motor
I blew up some red balloons and we played a variety of games with them. By the end of the day, all the balloons had been popped as R tried to sit on them!

I taped a piece of red card to the wall and had R throw the red beanbag and ball at the red card. I thought he would really enjoy this, but he wasn't fussed.

Science
Together we made some red jelly, discussing the concept of liquid to solid as the jelly set...we had to check on it several times! Once the jelly was set, I put it on the table for sensory exploration. R ate most of it and asked for more.

Language and Letters
Another craft we completed was A is for Apple Tree, seen at Katie's Nesting Spot. I cut an A out of a cereal box and R painted it with brown paint and a small paint brush. R then used a green Do-A-Dot marker to paint the top of the tree. I used a circle punch to cut out 5 red circles from card. R did not have the muscle strength to use the punch himself. He glued the circles on the apple tree.

R used alphabet stamps on the apple printout from Tot School Printables.

R did the Upper and lower case Aa Alphabet Matching from Confessions Of A Homeschooler. This is such a wonderful blog, full of great printables and ideas. If you haven't already, you should check it out!

Next Program: Easter