A shape monster glyph is a great way to reinforce a unit on shapes. It also encourages students to follow directions, develop cutting skills, and practice counting.
The age and ability levels of your students will determine how much you'll want to prep before hand. The shapes were drawn for the students to cut out themselves. The hair, legs, feet, eyes, and mouths were also precut. The students cut out the shape and teeth. They also crinkle folded the legs and then glued all the pieces together.
I absolutely LOVE teaching about apples and all things fall. It is by far my favorite time of the year!
First we read the book Ten Apples Up On Top by Dr. Seuss.
Then my TA set out these play-dough mats on our math table with some apple scented play-dough. (Unfortunately I don't have files to share, my very talented TA free handed them. You could try tracing the pictures from the book if you're artistically challenged like me!)
We encouraged the kids to make small apples with the play-dough to put on top of the characters just like in the book. This is a great fine motor activity!
This activity can be individualized to challenge students across a broad spectrum of development.
1-1: For students working on one to one correspondence, let students add as many apples on top as they'd like, then count them together. Pointing to each one as you count.
Meaningful Counting*: If the student has a good handle on one to one correspondence, have them add a specific number of apples. (Roll a dice or draw a card to choose how many apples they should put on top.) Remind students to count as they add apples and stop when they get to the desired number.
Beginning Addition*: If the student has mastered meaningful counting, this activity can be used to teach addition skills. Have the student add a certain number of apples (such as 3), then have them add more (such as 2 more), then ask how many apples there are all together.
*If you're focusing on these math skills I recommend using pom poms for apples as the play-dough has to much lag time for counting.
I used these mats for math small groups after they had already been available for free play for a few days. This way the kids had time to explore and use the mats as they wanted to. Which made them more open to following directions during math time.
Our classroom smelled sooooo good! You can find an apple scented play-dough recipe here at The Picky Apple. It's really easy to make. Instead of putting all the different spices in, I just put in apple pie spice.
There's so many things I love about our apple unit! It's the beginning of fall. The students are finally familiar with our classroom rules and we can do more activities. And most importantly, apples are FUN! We study apples for two weeks, so I have lots of ideas to share.
Science
We investigated the inside and outside of apples during small group time. We drew what we saw inside the apple in our science journals.
Then we taste tested three different colors of apple and graphed our favorite. The green apple was the class favorite this year.
Ten Apples Up on Top
We read the book Ten Apples up on Top for our repeated readings. My students always love this book.
We use the book to jump start our math. We put apples in order from 1-10 on top of the tiger from the book. This is great practice number recognition.
We wrote the numbers 1-10 on apple cut-outs and placed them on top of our pictures.
Another great math game is find the worm. You can read more about that in my post from last year.
We had a lot of fun balancing an apple on our heads! It's not as easy as it looks.
Art Activities
We used used apples to make apple prints. Toddler Approved has a great idea on how to make the apples easier for the students to hold.
We used scrap paper to make apple tree art.
Another class in our school made these adorable apple sun catchers. Glue pieces of tissue paper onto wax paper to make an apple. Then place it in between a cut out border.
Other Ideas
We sorted apple cut outs by size and color.
We used an apple song for our shared reading.
We put out apple books in our classroom library. My students love reading them and "being the teacher."
We made a KWL chart about apples.
Additional Resources
Here are a couple great videos from youtube.
This one is about the life cycle of an apple tree.
Lots of great information about apples in a fun song.
As you can tell, we had lots of fun and learned a lot about apples. What great apple activities did you do this year?
We played a bug math game today. I found the idea for this game somewhere on the web, but I can't figure out where it was. The kiddos were absolutely crazy about this game. (To be fair, it did include BUGS!)
Each child has their own jar. I drew mine on paper, but if you have real jars it would be even cooler.
I used a die I made from a free pattern on the internet. I used the numbers 2,3,4, and 5. I also included a picture of a fly swatter and bug spray. The goal of the game is to fill the jar with bugs. If a number is rolled on the die, the child adds that many bugs to their jar.
If the fly swatter is rolled, one bug goes back in the jar.
If the bug spray is rolled, all of your bugs go back in the middle.
After we ran out of bugs, I had the children count how many bugs were in their jars. We talked about who had the most/least bugs. For my kiddos who were ready, I used this activity to encourage beginning addition and subtraction. At the end of the game, my kiddos were begging to play more. So we will be having some more bug fun tomorrow!
We had a great time incorporating math into our caterpillar theme this week with caterpillar patterns.
The original idea came from pinterest (of course!). Except it was for fractions. Fractions are above the pre-k level, so I modified it to work for my kiddos. It was way too cute to pass up! Check out the original idea here, at The First Grade Parade.
My kids are very strong in continuing patterns, but still need practice creating patterns on their own. This activity was perfect for strengthening their patterning skills. The best part about it was it took NO prep, wasn't messy AT ALL, was simple, quick, and FUN! My kiddos love any reason to get out the colorful, fuzzy pom-poms and caterpillars are all the rage in my class at the moment. Look at how cute and colorful our finished work is!
This activity was a great reminder of how adaptable so many activities can be. So next time you see an awesome idea, make sure to think of ways to adapt it for your kiddos!
This is a great way to use all those candy hearts from Valentine's day. This activity is a great one to save and put in the child's portfolio.
Supplies:
- candy heart count paper
- 15 candy hearts per child
- pen
- highlighter
First, I had the child place a candy heart on every one of the hearts on the paper. Then I asked the child to count all of the pink candies. Then we counted together to check and see if the child was right. The child wrote the number under the pink column. I wrote the number in highlighter for the children who are still learning to write their numbers.
Small Group Time - In my classroom, small group time is known as star teacher time. Sometimes I work with students one on one, and other times I work with them in groups of 2-4. When I finish working with a group I let them choose a star sticker. The sticker works as great motivation for effort.
Goals: Number Recognition, Counting, One-to-One Correspondence
Supplies:
10 Hearts numbered 1-9, and a star
Dots
Bell
The child reads the number on the heart. Then they place that many dots on the heart. When the child is finished he/she hits the star. If they are correct the teacher rings the bell. If they are not correct. The teacher and child work together to get the right amount.
