I knew we had a plan to go apple-picking this weekend, so I made apples our theme for this week! We started each day by talking about the calendar and the weather. Then we had a few learning activities here and there. Have a look!
Theme: Apples
Books
Apple Picking - Color Sorting
To start off our week, I created a little apple orchard for Sweet E on our chalkboard. I just taped the balls up there for her. She needed to pick the apples, and sort them into the right bins.
She loved this!
Once she had finished, she asked to do it again. So she helped me stick them all back up.
Such a fun way to start the week!
Sequencing
This FREE printable comes from Fluffy Tots. We used words like "first," "second," and "third" as we talked about what order the pictures occur.
Introducing Lowercase d - Learning Notebook
We are learning about three lowercase letters each week, now that Sweet E is confident in all of the uppercase letters. First up for today, tracing and finding d's.
Matching ABCD - Learning Notebook
For the next activity I wrote the lowercase letters abcd onto red stickers, and she had to match these "apples" to the uppercase letters on the tree.
Then we pulled out our easel and magnetic letters to have more fun with these letters.
Number Puzzles
These FREE printables come from Tot Schooling. I printed out a few I know she knows, to help build her confidence, as well as a couple above ten. She did great!
Making Patterns
Sweet E just loves making patterns. She started with ABB ABB:
Then ABC ABC:
And finally, AABB AABB:
Parts of an Apple + Craft
First she painted a paper plate.
When it dried we added a stem and leaf, and she glued on a few seeds.
When it was finished we talked about the parts of an apple. She was able to identify the stem, leaf, skin, flesh and seeds!
Dropper - Fine Motor
I made this page and laminated it (plus I made a Christmas tree with circles for ornaments on the back...how's that for planning ahead). Then I dyed some water red, and encouraged Sweet E to add apples with the dropper.
She had fun with this! And if the water got out of the circle, she learned how to suck it back up into the dropper to remove it!
I remember Little M&M always loved this activity when we used it for color mixing. Might have to pull out the laminated color wheel soon. Such fun!
Adding Apples
This FREE printable comes from Fun Learning for Kids. First I offered Sweet E two dice that only went to three.
Then, as she became familiar with the concept of adding, I replaced one of the dice with another that goes to six. Great introduction to adding small numbers!
Introducing Lowercase e
First we pulled out our trusty easel and magnetic letters to match uppercase to lowercase.
She loves this, and today asked me to mix up the letters three times so she could keep doing it!
Learning Notebook
Just a little bit of stamping in her notebook, to continue working with these letters.
Ten Apples Up On Top - Block Center
I taped apples onto wooden blocks, so Sweet E could practice counting and stacking.
This is one of our current favorite books. She was eager to get started! As she placed the blocks, we'd recite, "one apple up on top," etc.
She stood on a chair to help her reach!
Ta-da! She did this activity a couple times. 🍎
Apple Stamping
I sliced an apple in half, and we went over the parts of an apple again. Then I stuck a corn holder on top of each one, so she could use the apples as stamps.
It came out super cute! And she wanted to hang it proudly in our dining room / homeschool room.
Introducing Lowercase f - Learning Notebook
Just another bit of tracing and searching for today's letter, at her request!
Then we followed up with some easel activities, as usual. Repetition is so important at this age! And she seems to be retaining what she's learning!
Just as we did last week, I put the uppercase letters into shapes, and Sweet E needed to use them as a sort of key to figure out where to put the lowercase letters. It was her idea to turn each shape into apples lol.
Field Trip to the Apple Orchard
To end our week we headed to a local apple orchard to pick apples. First some Mac's.
I love how there were so many right at her level!
Then we went over and picked some Golden Delicious too!
So many apples! Time to start baking!!
