Apples

There are so many great topics that can be used as a vehicle for learning in early childhood classrooms, that sometimes it's hard to decide which ones to use. Especially with limited time in a 2-day class, I really try to consider the interests, questions, and experiences of my students as I'm planning themes. So when my students began having a conversation about apples a few weeks ago, and one student was sure that apples were only red in color, I decided to pull out some trusty apple activities.

Since my student had a question about the color of apples, we spent time exploring different kinds of apples. We used real apples and "pretend apples" (pom-poms) for sorting  by color:

The pretend apples also made their way to the kitchen area (completely child-led), where apple washing, cooking, and pie making ensued.

And of course apple painting is always a favorite art and sensory activity:

This year I also tried out a new apple idea using the song/chant "Way Up High in the Apple Tree." I gave each student a colored apple cut-out to hold and move during the chant:

Way up high in the apple tree

Six little apples were smiling at me

I shook that tree as hard as I could

And down came the apples

Mmmm, they were good!

The kids waved and shook their apples during the line about shaking the tree, and then dropped them on the next line. After all the apples had fallen to the ground, we all tried to find a new apple to hold. But before we sang the song again, we played a quick matching game. If you picked up a green apple, then you were supposed to look for another friend that also had a green apple. I would then give the kids a simple command or question to answer with their apple friend like, "show your friend the stem of your apple" or "tell your friend your name."  It worked really well for getting the kids moving and interacting with each other, while also providing another great context for practice with comparing, sorting, and counting.