Lesson Theme: Apples!

Yay for APPLE theme week!  I love apples - there were so many fun things to do and taste this past week!

Here's the traditional taste-and-graph your favorites activity which we did with our family!  :)

We made apple prints and applesauce (NOT using the same apples).  We just combined our cut up apples with water and cinnamon and cooked them in a pan on the stove until they were ready to be mushed!

Once the apple prints dried, we used them to make an "applesauce" wreath - a simple reminder of our fun time cooking together!  Plus, what better way to be welcomed home than with the autumn scent of cinnamon as you walk through the door!

To make our wreath, I cut out the center of a round pizza cardboard (what a frozen pizza comes on).  We then glued our prints and cinnamon sticks to the cardboard.  A burlap and gold ribbon bow gave it the finishing touch!

We made pretend apple muffins as well.  I put a number in the bottom of each muffin tin and wrote number sentences on paper apples (then cut the apples up).

Miss A had to match the cut up apple math sentences with the number on the bottom of the tin (ex. 7+8=  15).  Then she wrote the number word that corresponded with the number on the bottom of the tin (ex.  four  for #4) on a muffin top and placed it on top of the cut up pieces inside the tin to complete each "muffin".

Spelling pies were another part of our week.  I deviated from our normal spelling words to come up with a list of words related to apples.  I then wrote the letters of each word on paper apples.

After reviewing our new words, I cut the apples apart, mixed them up, and let Miss A piece each word back together using the spelling list and/or her memory.  Once she could do that, we would glue it to the chart paper.  She then colored a pie picture and glued it partially on top so each pie could be lifted to peek at the apples inside.

During the course of the week, I would check to see if she could spell one of her words without looking.  If she could do so correctly, we would add some real cinnamon to the top of that particular pie to complete it!  :)

Speaking of pie, we just HAD to make apple pie to go along with some books we read.  :)
AND...

We made an apple pie bracelet!  We used some letter beads and wood beads painted red (for apples) to spell out the main ingredients we used to make our miniature apple pies (we made them in a muffin tin).  Not only is the bracelet cute and a reminder of our time together, it can be used as a great re-telling tool as well!

We practiced fractions using apples and the book "Apple Fractions".  I LOVE this book!  Not only is it informative, easy to read, and helpful - the illustrations themselves are adorable (little elves measure and slice apples to go along with the text).

If you are unable to find this book in your local library, Amazon has it (see the link below).

We also planned an apple bar to go along with dinner since I knew we would have so many apple slices left after dividing them up for our fraction lesson.  The bar was a hit with dipping choices of caramel, hot fudge, and peanut butter - yummm!

I also had a surprise up my sleeve for Miss A.  While she was busy working on something else one day, I set up "Snow White's Apple Farm" outside.  Miss A loves stories and fairytales so I thought it might be fun to incorporate one in our week - Snow White seemed the logical choice.

I blew up some red balloons to about the size of a large apple and stuck papers to the bottoms of each with a math sentence written on the paper.  I placed a sign in the yard welcoming her to Snow White's Apple Farm and let her know she needed to help Snow White pick some apples.  However, the wicked stepmother had hidden a bad apple in the bunch so she had to be extra careful not to place that in her basket by mistake.

I told her a number and let her loose upon the field of apples on the ground.  Her goal was to find the math sentences that matched/equaled the number - anything else was a poisonous apple.

She did a fantastic job of choosing all the right apples and placing the "poisoned" apple back on the ground!  I would have liked to play the game again another day, but unfortunately I found many of the apples deflated later on.  Perhaps it had something to do with a certain little someone finding the place where I had hidden them and emptying them out to play with.  Oh well - no doubt Snow White would have been understanding so I tried to be as well.   ;)

Meet the "Autumn" family and enter the GIVEAWAY here to win a cute wooden doll family of your very own!!!  Make sure you scroll through the giveaway post to see the before and after pictures of these fun dolls!  :)



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