Fantastic Fall: Apples!

This week we continued our Fantastic Fall unit, and talked all about Apples!

We practiced our cutting skills . . .

Worked on the letter 'A' . . .

 And had lots of practice at sounding words out and writing them together.

We learned about Johnny Appleseed and all the varieties of apples he planted.

 Then we made our own Coon Hat!

After reading a story about Johnny Appleseed, we took the book apart and 

worked together to put it in the right sequence.

 It's important for emergent readers to understand concepts of print.  This activity helps the children understand how a story has a beginning, middle, and end.

 Got It!

Then we colored our own Johnny Appleseed book,

 Thursday was our Apple Day Celebration.  

The kids had fun reading books and feasting on apples together - all in our jammies!

We learned an Apple Poem:

"Way up high in the apple tree,

Two little apples smiled down on me.

I shook that tree as hard as I could!

Down came those apples,

Mmmm, they were good!"

Then we cut and painted an apple tree, complete with apples, to act out the poem.

 Today was an extra special day, as it was also our first "Show N Teach"!

Ellie taught us how to crack eggs into a bowl - she's a pro!

Montego and Grant showed the girls how to ride bikes

 - those boys are awesome!

Bailee taught everyone how to properly eat candy (according to Bailee) :

 This is NOT the right way

And this IS the right way.

We learned the magic way to cut open an apple where it reveals a STAR in the middle!

After "oooing" and "awwwing" we used the apple as a stamp and painted an apple tree. 

On Tuesday we'll add apples to our trees.

We were able to taste five different apples during our Apple Day Celebration!

 We tried Red Delicious, Fuji, Gala, Granny Smith, and Golden Delicious.

With each apple, we marked a smiley face if we liked the apple, 

and a frowny face if we did not like the  apple.

 Then we made mini apples pies together.  We rolled up the crust, put it in the oven, and watched a movie of the Apple Poem we learned while we waited for them to cook!

They turned out delicious! A perfect ending (complete with apple juice) 

to an Awesome Apple Day Celebration!

Fantastic Fall: Pumpkins!

This week was all about Pumpkins!

We wrote down questions we had about pumpkins, then went to work on finding our answers . . .

We felt a pumpkin, carried it, and looked on the inside.

Then we read lots of books on pumpkins and learned 

how they grow, when they grow, what they feel like, and what we can do with them.

 While practicing our fine motor and sequencing skills, 

we cut out the steps in the growth process of a pumpkin

 And glued them in the correct order.

We read "I like Pumpkins" and talked about all the different kinds of pumpkins in the story.

Then we wrote some description words on our board together . . . 

 and used the words to finish a poem.

On Wednesday we went to a Pumpkin Patch!

We took turns feeding the animals:

We saw goats, cows, and geese.

The boys having fun together!

Waiting patiently for the Hay Ride:

Then it was our turn for a Hay Ride!

Next we fed some HUGE fish!

We loved seeing all the different types of trees growing, and comparing the colors of the leaves.  We even snuck in a conversation about deciduous and evergreen trees : )

Then we picked our pumpkins!

After seeing the pumpkin patch, we colored 

sequence cards illustrating the stages in a pumpkin's life cycle.

We played games with the sequence cards, then made them into books.

Finally, we created a pumpkin observational book . . .

 After choosing a pumpkin, we weighed and measured it,

 then answered questions about it's characteristics.

WE LOVE PUMPKINS!