We Appled On

It has been so fun teaching my kinders about apples.  They are little sponges that just soak it all up. This coming week is early out days for 4 of the 5, for parent teacher conferences... and then FALL BREAK!  After break we'll be learning about spiders and bats, I can't wait!


I mentioned in my last post that we tasted red, yellow and green apples and then graphed our favorites.  I told the kids before they ate the other half of each of their apple pieces to use their five senses.  To think about what they hear, taste, smell, see, and touch.  They called out their words while I wrote them on index cards.  Then we sorted them according to which sense was used.  Then, a day or so later, I cut the words out and the kids glued them onto the big apple.

We had some fabulous mom helpers hang up our trees we painted on Applicious Day, and then the kids cut out their own apples and glued them anywhere they wanted on the trees.

Here are the apple windsocks the kids made during Applicious Day.  It is so fun having these hang in my room.  As a class, we discussed not pulling on them etc., because we don't want anything to ruin them/break them.  The kids have been doing a fabulous job respecting each other's creation.  I have had two different kiddos put their mouths on them [I could tell because their mouths had changed colors (ew)].

We finished up our apple centers this week.  I created most of these last year from ideas I found perusing Pinterest and Googling.  I am in LOVE for a few years now, with my Silhoutte.  I have used it to create and cut out pieces of my centers.

One of my apple centers has number cards involved and my kiddos pointed out there were doubles in each container, so I had them work together to separate the the cards by putting them in order. Boy, do I LOVE sporadic teachable moments.  Some kids made two separate lines, and some lined them up in two rows right next to each other.  I love that they worked together and problem solved ways to get this done.

Between my awesome student aide and parent helpers, the kids painted the brown trees for our Life Cycle of an Apple Tree.  Then as a class we sequenced the descriptions (they had numbers on them) and then added our blossoms (tissue paper), green leaves (punched out) and apples (also made from a punch).  For winter, we used glue and glitter to make our snow. Isn't glitter a blast?!

Roll and Record is a game in which students take turns rolling a dice and then finding and coloring that number in the picture.  If there are no more of the number rolled, it becomes the other player's turn.

Not apple themed at all but I have been doing this little sight word activity with the kids the last week and a half.  I found this idea a few years ago in one form or another, but FINALLY had a chance to implement it.  The kids "high-five" each hand on their way out and in our room and read the words.  They.love.this.  If they forget to do it, they walk back over to read each word.  I rearrange the words so that they are not always in the same order, or the same words (yay sticky tack!).

We also love to read in our room.  I couldn't help myself but take pictures as the kids enjoy books, because they are just too darn cute.

Looking forward to another day off. Love the weekends!  Then onto next week!

Apple Overload

Reader Alert! Heavily loaded with pictures. :)

What a fun week (just a bit over) it has been learning about apples.  We have a couple more activities to do to finish up with our apple theme, but with having a field trip last Friday, Applicious Day this past Tuesday, and only have some of my kinder lovelies for half a day, we need the next few days to finish up.

Our week started out like any other...by writing in our Monday Journals about our weekend.  I love as through the year, you can see how each child grows and becomes a better writer, no matter where he or she started.  I have already seen so much growth in just our 39 days together.  I always talk about adding detail (right now emphasis on adding detail to pictures) by using multiple colors and eventually adding a setting so that our pictures aren't floating (like a house or a dog).  Here are a few examples:

We always begin by writing the date and "This weekend I..." some students choose to do their picture first, while others write first, and some write the beginning part, draw their picture and then finish their writing.  I am so proud of my kiddos when someone tries to have someone else spell for them, and they tell them nicely they won't tell them, but then proceed to help them stretch it out; my little teachers.

BOY are we having a blast learning about apples.  Monday we did an apple investigation.  We predicted (tough thing for a kinder to do!) and then we measured and documented what we found.

Tuesday was Applicious Day in Kindergarten. Oh. My. Word. What a whirlwind of a morning it was.  Applicious Day came about last year when our little orchard we go to ran out of apples... Yes. It happens...who knew?!  So we came up with Applicious Day to do something special with our little friends.  This year we decided it would be fun to do both!  So each of the four kinder teachers has an apple activity to do with each of the four classes.

Each child was in front of this for a picture.  Some of my teammates do a memory book for each child, I do a slideshow and share the photos I take.

 In my room, we began by painting a red, green, and yellow apple.  Then students went into the hallway with my fabulous mom helpers and painted trees on big butcher paper.  We will hang all of the trees in the hallway and then students will cut out their apples and glue them to the trees.  Once this happens our hallway is transformed into an apple orchard and such a cool sight to see. (Once all is hung, I will post pictures).

By the time all 4 classes were done, there was a narrow pathway to walk down our hallway.

SO messy but such a blast!

The next rotation, students stamped with apples, made windsocks and a few other activities.  I hung the windsocks in our room, and it just brightens it up! (*pictures to come*)

In the third rotation, students made and labeled an apple.

The last rotation, they made apples to hang from a twine string.  The apples are strung across our hallway and look so cute!

You can see mine and my neighbor's.

Today, we had our apple taste test.  The resources we used were not mine, but at the moment I cannot remember who they belong to.  Once I figure it out, I will link it up and give credit where credit is due.

Students predict what will be their favorite and then color the bottom apples according to "favorite, second favorite and least favorite."

We took a bite (one of my kiddos bit right out of the top as his bite, made me giggle), and then colored an apple our favorite color and added it to our class graph.  We discussed our graph and came up with a title (I must be off today because I thought I took a picture, but did not).  Then we at the other pieces of our apples and as they ate, they called our descriptive words and I wrote them on index cards.  Once they were finished we met on the carpet to sort our words by which of the five senses we used to get to that word. (got the idea from the fabulous Cara Carroll over at The First Grade Parade).

We have a few more things to finish up and then we are done with apples.  Next stop is parent teacher conferences and my favorite... FALL BREAK!  Time to watch some TV and hit the hay.

Apple Pickin'

What a day yesterday!  On the way to school the sky was looking ominous.  Not something you'd necessarily like to see when you are going to an outdoor field trip.

Sure enough, by the time I parked at school the rain was POURING.  Thankfully, I keep an umbrella in the car and, even better, it was within reach.  The thing about Arizona rain, is it can pour for a few minutes ridiculously hard and then stop.  Luckily for us, this was the case.  We had a FABULOUS time at the orchard picking and tasting apples.  The kinders were able to eat an apple just by wiping it off, because this orchard does not use any pesticides.  Some of my littles ate MORE than one and I really hope they do not get an upset stomach. (This thought sparking due to an incident my teammate had with a kiddo a few years ago).  After the orchard, we at lunch at a nearby park and boy did the kids have fun running around and playing with their friends.

I am looking forward to Monday (wait what?!). But really I am.  We have another week of apple fun to embark on, and it will start with an apple investigation on Monday. Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Apples, Apples, Apples

No matter what we are learning about, we are always pretty busy in kindergarten land.   This past week is no different.  I was not at work Monday, but the kids had a BLAST with their sub (who is a regular at our school and fabulous) and everybody's favorite cat, PETE!  I used Donna Conway's Pete the Cat Emergency Sub Plans Freebie.  We have been busy learning how to read and spell color words, and spending a day with Pete, was perfect.  On a little side note, during centers this week, the kids get to listen to Pete The Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons and they are SO excited.

To prepare for our field trip coming up this Friday to the apple orchard, we have been reading books about apples, completing a tree map and stamping apple prints on bags so they are set for us to put the apples we pick in.  I love kindergarten art.  Each bag is unique, some are very organized and some are, let's call them abstract.  We will continue our apple theme next week, as we did not have time to get to everything this week.  Part of the challenge is having some kids who are half day students and some who are full day.

Apple Stamping

Apple Stamping

Apple Stamping

Apple Stamping

Tree Map.  Students had a paper version and we did this together.

During centers in the afternoon, we have eight centers; seven of which are apple themed.  I created these centers last year, by perusing the internet and recreating the ideas I liked.  I forgot to take pictures while the kiddos were working today, so I will have to share them later.

Next week will include our apple investigation, taste test and graphing, an art project that shows an apple tree through each season, a science experiment on keeping apples from turning brown and APPLICIOUS DAY!  Applicious Day is a fun, apple filled morning.  Each of the kinder teachers hosts a different activity in her room and the kids rotate to each throughout the morning.  This awesome day came about last year when the Monday before our Thursday field trip, we found out the small orchard we go to was cleaned out the week before.


Off to do a few things then bed for this teacher... have to be ready for our first field trip tomorrow!