Hey y'all it's week 1...again...of preschool! And this week we're going to kick of our alphabet work through with Apples for the letter A. I decided to chose apples for A because my son loves apples, I already had a ton of books having to do with apples (for some reason), and there's so many amazing apple snacks to do!
Books
Day 1: Ten Apples Up On Top by Dr. Seuss
Day 2: Bad Apple: A Tale of Friendship by Edward Hemingway
Day 3: How Do Apples Grow? by Betsy Maestro
Day 4: Apples, Apples Everywhere! by Robin Koontz
Day 5: Apples, Apples, Apples by Elizabeth Wallace
Fine Motor Activities
Day 1: Ten Apples Felt Board
Materials: Ten Apple Up on Top book, felt head, and 10 felt apples (Or head print out with 10 white apples from worksheets).
Instructions:
Play out the book with the pieces as you read.
Objectives: Fine motor skills, story telling, and counting.
Day 2: Tear and Glue Apple
Materials: Red paper, glue, and apple outline (From worksheets).
Instructions:
Let you child start by tearing a piece of red paper.
Allow them to glue the pieces down into the apple, filling it up.
Objectives: Fine motor skills, color recognition, and learning to stay in lines.
Tip: If your child finds the tearing process too difficult or you want to cut the time of the activity down, pre-tear the pieces of paper.
Day 3: Bobbing for Apples
Materials: Green and red apples, big bowl, water, and tongs.
Instructions:
Set up the activity for your child by filling the bowl with water and then placing the apples within it.
Let your toddler use a pair of tongs to "bob" for apples
First, let them simply concentrate on picking up the apples with the tongs. And then once they get more comfortable, allow them to start sorting by color.
Objectives: Fine motor skills, color sorting, sensory, and hand and eye coordination.
Tip: If the activity is a bit too easy for them, encourage them to try to pick up two at a time.
Day 4: Pick the Apple Seeds
Materials: Paper bowl or tissue box, black string, tape, scissors, black beans (or pom poms), and tweezers.
Instructions:
Use the scissors to make little notches around the bowl about 1/2 inch apart. Then tape strands of the string to the back of the bowl, weaving it around the bowl to make a web. Then add in the black beans.
Invite your child to use the tweezers to pick the "seeds" from the apple.
Objectives: Fine motor skills
Tip: Glue on some brown and green construction paper to make the bowl look more like an apple.
Day 5: ABC Lacing Apple
Materials: Paper plate, scissors, Sharpie, hole punch, and string.
Instructions:
Start by cutting a large whole in the plate, and then punching 26 holes in the plate for the alphabet. Label each whole with the sharpie with the alphabet (you can do it in order or mix it up depending on your child's development in this area). I decided to mix them up and pointed to each letter on his ABC wall along the way, so that my son can use his searching skills and so that he doesn't associate the ABCs with just a pattern.
Place the string in the A hole, tying it off.
Encourage your child to weave the string through the holes in the correct alphabet order. If you're child doesn't yet recognize, help them out by using a visualization of each letter. Encouraging them to find the letter on the plate themselves and weaving the string through.
Objectives: Fine motor skills and letter recognition.
Tips: You can glue on some brown and green construction paper to make the plate look more like an apple. I also glue on a tiny worm (a green pipe cleaner) to weave through the apple.
Gross Motor Activities
Day 1: Apple Twister
Materials: 5 red apple cutout, 5 green cut out apples, and tape (You can find these apples in the worksheets below or even cut some out from your own construction paper). Instructions:
Place the apples in a mixed board taped on the floor.
Call out different movements (just like in real twister) with corresponding colored apples.
Objectives: Gross motor skills, color recognition, and body part recognition. Tip: If your toddler is too young, still call out the names to get them acquainted with the idea and help them out by tapping the part.
Day 2: Apple Smash
Materials: Cotton balls, 1 cup of flour, 1 cup of water, red food coloring, tin foil, baking sheet, whisk, bowl, fork, poster board/big paper, green and red markers, hot glue gun, and a hammer.
Instructions:
Start by lining a baking sheet with tin foil. Then in a small bowl, mix together the flour and water with a few drops of food coloring with a whisk. Next, dip the cotton balls into the mixture with the fork, setting them on the baking sheet once covered.
Place them in the oven for 40 minutes or until pretty solid. And then let them cool.
Draw a tree on the board with the markers. Gluing the cotton balls onto the green space.
Set the board on a surface that won't get damaged.
Let your little one smash them one by one with a hammer.
Objectives: Hand-eye coordination, core strengthening, cause and effect, and gross motor skills.
I FORGOT TO GET A BOARD, SO I IMPROVISED WITH JUST A CHALK DRAWING OUTSIDE.
Day 3: Number Apple Hunt
Materials: Apple cutouts with numbers 1-10 and apple number paper outline . Instructions:
Give your toddler the outline.
Take the time to hide the apple cutouts throughout the house.
Let them wonder the house searching for the apples, coloring them in as they find them with the corresponding number and color.
Objectives: Gross motor skills, number recognition, color recognition, and searching skills.
Day 4: Apple Harvest Transportation
Materials: Apples, masking tape, and basket. Instructions:
Tape a tree to the floor with a trunk and stemming branches.
Place an apple at each end of the tree.
Encourage them to do different movements to get each apple - with the only rule being they have to stay on the lines of the tape.
Help them count with each apple they get while they place it into their basket.
Objectives: Gross motor skills, counting, and balance.
Day 5: Apple Color Sort
Materials: Red and green apples and labeled baskets.
Instructions:
Dumb the apples into a big basket all together. Mixing them up in color. And label two baskets.
Place the big basket on one end of the room and the labeled ones on the other.
Have your toddler go one by one, running the apples to drop them into the corresponding baskets.
Objectives: Gross motor skills, exercise, and color recognition.
Food/Snacks
Day 1: Apple Nachos
Materials: Apple, peanut butter, chocolate syrup, and chocolate chips. Instructions:
Cut the apple into slices.
Top them with all the other ingredients.
Day 2: Crunchy Apple Boats
Materials: Apple, toothpicks, granola, peanut butter, and cheese
Instructions:
Cut the apple in half.
Spread some peanut butter on the cut part, topping with granola.
Place the toothpick in the middle.
Cut triangles out of the cheese and place on top of the toothpicks.
Day 3: Apple Monsters
Materials: Apples, strawberries, peanut butter, pretzels, and chocolate chips.
Instructions:
Cut your apple into fours, with a slit in the middle to make a mouth.
Fill the whole with peanut butter.
Stick a slice of strawberry in the middle.
Stick some teeth on with pretzel pieces.
And make some eyes with a little but of peanut butter and chocolate chips.
Day 4: Apple Donuts
Materials: Apple, peanut butter, nuts, and chocolate chips. Instructions:
Cut the apple into circle cuts.
Spread peanut butter over the tops.
Top with the nuts and chocolate chips.
Day 5: Apple Chips
Materials: 4 apples, 2 tsp. of cinnamon, 1 tsp. of sugar, and cooking spray.
Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees
Add the apple slices to a large bowl, coating them with the cinnamon and sugar.
Spray a baking sheet and line the pan with the apples flat. And bake for 2-3 hours or until the chips are dry yet soft.
Sensory Activities
Applesauce Writing
Materials: Plate and applesauce.
Apple Wash
Materials: Big bin, apples, water, soap, and brushes.
Build an Apple Tree
Materials: Twigs, leaves, and red/green pom poms.
Apple Pie Play Doh
Materials: 2 cups of baking soda, 1 cup of corn starch, 1.5 cups of water, vegetable oil, red food coloring, 1 tbsp. of cinnamon, and 1 tbsp. of all spice.
Pom Pom Apple Trees
Materials: Bin, green/red pom poms, brown shredded paper, toilet paper tubes, and green construction paper tree cut outs.
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