Apple Day

Our 'Apple Day' is quickly approaching and I always like to look back to see what I've done in past years to make planning a lot easier! I always try to keep my special events fun, but easy to put together...no need to make stress or extra work for yourself! ;) I was taking a look at pictures from our last 'Apple Day' and I realized I never blogged about it! So, here we go!

The students made these special apple trees using their finger prints. I stored these away for their end of the year memory books.

You can find my memory books by clicking on the image below. It is incomplete and I will be adding to the pack monthly. 

They played our Apples Letter/Sounds game which is always a hit!

You can find the game here:

We made these delicious apple trees!! All you need is Ritz Crackers, a jar of vanilla icing (dyed green), pretzel sticks, and m&m's.

We also had a station set up for apple taste testing. They had a slice of a red, green, and yellow apple along with peanut butter, caramel, and apple juice.

I had this little poem and q-tip painting activity prepped from a previous year that went unused so we worked on this at one of our centers. They actually had a great time with this and it was a good fine motor center! We glued this into our poetry notebooks when they were dry.

You can find this q-tip painting for free in my store HERE.

The students all made this cute craft from The Bubbly Blonde. You can find it for free HERE. These would make a cute and easy bulletin board!

Our last center was a roll and dab game. My students always love these games. 

This one can be found in my apple unit below.

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Learning All About Apples!

We had so much learning all about apples during our apple unit! My students are also doing so well at rotating and completing their centers independently while I am pulling reading groups.

At their math center, they wrote the room. This was their first time doing this and it was a HUGE hit!! They were so quiet walking around the room and they were so excited to 'hunt' for the different ten frames! 

At the writing center they are still working on labeling. For those that can't read just yet, they had to use their beginning sound knowledge to determine where there words went.

At the word work center, the children had to work collaboratively to piece the apples back together-matching upper and lowercase letters.

When they were finished they used the word work cards to write their apple words. I love these because they work for all levels. Some of my students can write a list and others can just write one word and illustrate it. Hopefully soon they will be able to use the words to write a sentence!

In science, they observed an apple and labeled the parts. 

I love when students go above and beyond and make their activity sheet look so cute :)

Then, we ended our apple week with a birthday party for Johnny Appleseed. We started the morning off with this cute FREEBIE from Donna at Peace, Love and Learning

We made our own Johnny Appleseed hats :)

and delicious apple trees!!! (with blue and orange apples of course)

 We played Apple Roll and Race. Why do kids love dice games so much??

These apple activities can be found in my apple unit on TPT

Now we are getting ready to start our bat unit!! I LOVE teaching this unit!!

Apples!

I feel like I haven't been on my blog in forever!! School is so busy right now and this past week I took a day off and spent a long weekend up in DC for a friend's bachelorette party! We had a blast!! Here we are after finishing 2 wine tours ;)

In class these past 2 weeks we have been learning all about apples! The students reviewed numbers one through six:

 They worked on beginning sounds (they really impressed me with this too! They completed it totally independently!)

 We completed another 'Just a lil dot' activity...

 I am not a glitter fan, but these turn out too cute!

 I found a new favorite center. The students hunted around the room for ten frames! So fun! The best part was overhearing them helping each other and using their vocabulary terms. I heard students saying, "I found the seedings!" It made me smile :)

 They also worked on some one-to-one correspondence (dice games are definitely a must with my group this year)...

All of the centers above can be found in my apple unit HERE

Tomorrow we are having Johnny Appleseed Day! I am having parents come in and help me run some centers. Our centers will be:

1. Happy Birthday Johnny Appleseed! coloring sheet from Peace, Love, and Learning that I found for free (download on TPT by clicking the image)

2. One Bad Apple Can Spoil the Bunch form Deanna Jump's Apple Unit

3. Johnny Appleseed Craftivity (from my Apple Unit)

4. Apple Measuring (from my unit as well)

5. and of course, we will be taste testing! I saw this fun picture on Pinterest and sent it to my room mom. So I am excited to see what yummy items she brings tomorrow for the kids (and me of course) ;)

Starting Monday we are going to be learning all about bats! I am super excited for this unit!! Happy (almost) Friday!!

Organization and Freebie :)

At my school we aren't allowed back into the classroom until the week before school starts so I was trying my best to get somewhat organized before I left for the summer!! I decided to take on my open cabinet. I wish I had a 'before' picture because it was so NOT cute at all!! But...here is the after picture :)

I am so much happier to know that this is already all organized when I get back! I still have some labels to add....I was using all the labels from Mrs. Freshwater's Blog :) I am trying to decide if I want to make that tool box from Home Depot that so many of you are making!! Hmmm??

I also re-did a lot of my units on TPT this past week! I added new activities or just made them cuter! So, if you have bought anything from me, please head over to TPT and go to your purchases to see if there is a new download for you :) :) 

I had a couple emails asking if my Johnny Appleseed was available for purchase separate from my Apple Unit, well....not it is! :) If you are interested, just click here or below.

If you are still with me...then I have a little freebie for you!! I know a lot of our K kids need 'glue' practice at the beginning of the year. Two of the first units I am doing are Monsters and Apples...so click below to grab your 'A Little Dot Holds A lot' pages :) Don't forget to sing the song too!! It goes to the tune of "If You're Happy and You Know It" Just a little bit of glue holds a lot (snap, snap), Just a little bit of glue holds a lot (snap, snap). Just a little bit of glue, just a tiny little dot, just a little bit of glue holds a lot (snap, snap)! Click on the picture below:

Apples!!

Today I am lucky enough to guest post over on my friend Randi's blog, Teach It With Class

If you are just coming over here for the first time then Welcome!! If not, I would love for you to hop on over to her blog to read my post :)

I am excited to say that I am finally done with my Apple Unit!! I absolutely love teaching apples! I don't know if its because it is the beginning of the year and its one of the first units or just because it is FUN!!

This unit is great for the beginning of the year. It is very differentiated, just like our kids at this time!!  :) There are alphabet activities, beginning of the year sight word activities, beginning sounds, CVC words for those kids that are ready, labeling, measuring, patterning, 10 frames and I can go on and on!!  I snapped some pictures while I was prepping it for my class, but I would love for you to head over to TPT and read the overview so you can see all that it includes :) Just click HERE

Non-fiction writing book with plenty of options to choose from

Sight words, beginning sounds, and CVC words

Patterning, 10-frames, one-to-one correspondence

Cute Johnny Appleseed craft with optional fact book :)

If you read my guest post I explained how I love to start all of my units with a graphic organizer. If you want to grab my graphic organizer for the Apple Unit just click HERE and download the preview :)

I will keep my apple unit on sale throughout the weekend! Let me know what you think :)