Shapes

Every class that I have taught is different and has their own personalities. This class cracks me up because I cannot get them to look at the camera for the life of me. I try to be as quick as I can when taking pictures of the students during center time or class so I don't disrupt the class time. So sometimes we don't get the best shot and sometimes I can't get them to look at the camera, but we just move on. So I thought I'd throw that disclaimer out there because this class is the "looking dramatically into the distance" picture taking class. Maybe they all have great modeling careers ahead of them. :) Pipe cleaners and straws make an amazing opportunity for kids to be creative and learn about shapes or letters. We worked on making shapes and identifying them during centers time. For more instructions see this post here.

Every year we read this amazing book called Color Zoo by Lois Ehlert. We use her inspiration of making animal faces using simple shapes to create our own animal faces. Each child is given a picture of their favorite animal and we decide together what shapes should make the different features of the face. I provide them with precut shapes and they assemble the faces. I must say that this year is definitely our best batch of animal faces yet! We got to make some really fun faces like rhinos, giraffes, and elephants. Check our your child's amazing creations, you are about to be blown away!

A is for Apple

I love showing our awesome parents what we do each week and sharing with them the learning that went behind the projects that the kids take home. Most of these projects have more detailed posts that I have done before so I am posting a link for each one. Please take a minute to click on the links (the title of each activity) to see what we did and how we did it during letter A week.

Picking apples & working on fine motor skills

Counting the dice pips so she knows how many apples to pick.

Practicing fine motor skills.

Use tongs to pick up apples and drop them in the can.

 Apple Seed Counting (Free Printable)

Practicing number identifying, writing the number, and adding the right amount of seeds to each apple.

Taste testing different types of apples.

 Apple Star Painting and Poem

Identifying numbers and picking apples

We rolled a 12 sided dice, said the number, and picked that apple

10 Apples Up on Top!

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A is for ant

Put those opposable thumbs to use to make these adorable ant As. Make sure each ant has 3 body parts and 6 legs. 

Apple Star & Poem

Most of the time when we cut through an apple, we cut it in half from top to bottom. But, the coolest thing is that if you cut it in half through the middle, there is a star shape inside! 

Anya and I spent some time talking about apples and what colors they come in. We taste tested the different colored apples and we talked about how apples grow. 

Then, we cut the apple in half through the middle and talked about the apple core. The star shape holds the seeds so that new apple trees can grow. It was a fun discovery to look at each part of the star and see if it was holding seeds and then count how many all together. 

After that, we used the apple as a stamp and made a little apple star card. The poem on the left says:

There's a star inside an apple!

It's a miracle indeed,

That this sweet and juicy apple

Was once a tiny seed!

I hope you have fun discovering how cool apples can be!

Mini Apple Cobbler

 

When I think about apples, I think about all the yummy foods you can make with apples and of course apple pie is at the top of that list. I really wanted to make apple pies for letter A week and I got some great inspiration from Our Best Bites for their pie in a jar.

However, I have a confession to make. I, Miss Laura, am afraid of making pie. It's not the filling I am concerned about, but I am terrified of homemade pie crust. I think the large margin for failure makes me a little nervous. Anywho, I decided to play a little with the pie in a jar idea and it turned into cobbler in a jar. It. Was. Delicious!

 

(These instructions are for 4-8 oz short jars, if using a different number or size, you can adjust accordingly.)

You start out with short mason jars. They come in two sizes - 4 oz, straight sided jars like mentioned on Our Best Bites and 8 oz, curvy ones which is what we used.  Surprisingly, I found both sizes at Walmart. Sometimes you find weird stuff there and sometimes you strike out. I really think there is no rhyme or reason to that store except to be big and random. 

First you peel, core and chop 3 apples. If you want to do this ahead of time, you can toss the apples in a little bit of lemon juice and it will keep them from browning. Just be careful not to do too much, just enough to get them a little wet.

After that, measure 1/2 c water and add to the apples. This was a great opportunity to discuss liquids vs. solids as well as different kinds of measuring cups. Cooking is always a great way to talk about math and measurement! 

Sprinkle some cinnamon to taste. If needed, stick your tongue out to the side to get just the right amount. : ) Mix apples, water, and cinnamon. 

 

Evenly spoon the apples into the jars. Distribute any water at the bottom of the bowl evenly into the jars as well. 

 

You might have a few pieces left over depending on how big your apples were. If so, enjoy a prebaking snack!

 

Next up is the crumb topping.  Mix together 1/2 package white cake mix, 1/2 c brown sugar, & 1/2 tsp cinnamon. Then, cut in 1/2 c soft butter with a pastry blender or some forks until mixture is crumbly.

Top apples in jars with crumb mixture.

The great thing about this project is that you can bake it now, or you can save them for later. We wanted to share our creation with the rest of the family so we put the lids on and popped them in the fridge so we could bake them after dinner. If you are making this with a class, you can send it home with them to bake at home. 

When ready to bake, take the lid off and put the jar on a cookie sheet in case of spill over. Bake at 350 degrees for 45-55 minutes. 

Top with whipped cream and enjoy your hot, fresh, perfectly sized mini apple cobbler!

Mini Apple Cobblers

(Makes enough for 4-8 oz sized mini jars)

Ingredients:

4-8 oz, short mason jars

3 apples - peeled, cored, and diced

1/2 c water

cinnamon

1/2 package white cake mix

1/2 c brown sugar

1/2 c soft butter

Instructions:

Mix apples, water, and cinnamon to taste in a bowl. Divide apples between the jars and distribute any remaining liquid evenly into the jars.

Mix cake mix, brown sugar, and 1/2 tsp cinnamon in another bowl. Cut in butter with pastry blender or some forks until the mixture is crumbly. Top apples with crumb mixture. 

Put on lid until ready to bake. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Remove lids and place jars on cookie sheet. Bake for 45-55 minutes.

10 Apples Up on Top

After we "picked" apples from our apple tree, we used the apples to do an art project. (Click on words to link to that project.) 

We read 10 Apples Up on Top by Dr. Seuss and then made our own 10 apples up on top crowns. 

Each apple Anya had picked from the tree had a number written in crayon on it. We used watercolors to paint each apple. After they dried, we glued them on a long piece of cardstock in numerical order and wrapped it around her head. Easy peasy and she loved walking around with her own 10 apples up on top for the rest of the day!

Picking Apples

As we continued our talk about apples this week, we did a couple of fun apple related activities. We talked about apple trees, how apples grow, and how people pick the apples out of the trees. 

 Anya practiced her fine motor skills by "picking" apples off a tree with mini tongs. 

We used "appetizer tongs" but you could also use ice tongs or big tweezers. The apples are pom poms.

 

We picked apples with numbers on them from our apple "tree." I know that the apples aren't the right color, but I did it on purpose because we used them again for our 10 apples up on top activity. (click the link to see what we did.)  

 

* Safety note, except when I took the pictures, I made sure to be near her while she was up on the stool in case she fell.*

Anya and I drew a tree using Ikea's drawing paper roll, but you could use anything: cardboard, posterboard, etc. Then I cut out and labeled apples with a number 1 - 10 and Anya "picked" them in numerical order and put them in her basket. 

I stuck them up with sticky tack. If I weren't using the apples for another project, I would have done them on colored paper, laminated them and used velcro so that we could reuse the tree over and over.  

Apple Seed Counting

Practice counting and number reconition with this apple related center. Trace the numbers and glue the correct number of "seeds" onto each apple. We used pinto beans (it's what I had on hand), but I think black beans are a lot better because apple seeds are black. You could use real apple seeds if you had enough. 

There are two free printables - numbers 1-5, and numbers 6-10 as shown above. Click here for 1-5 free printable.  Click here for 6-10 free printable. 

A is for Airplane

What fridge wouldn't be a lot cuter with a squadron of these airplanes to hold your child's art? 

I could also see these being a fun project to give to an aviation enthusiast on Father's Day. You could glue push pins to the back instead of magnets for dad or grandpa to put up at work to show off pictures of their little ones!

They are quick, easy, and you can probably make them with things you already have at home. 

Here's What You Need:

• 1 clothes pin
• 3 popsicle sticks & scissors
• glue
• foam
• magnets (we used a sticky backed magnet roll and cut pieces to fit on back)

 

 

Here's What You Do:

1. Cut about 2 inches off of one of the popsicle sticks and round the corners
2. Paint both sides of all the popsicle sticks, including the short stick
3. Paint all sides of the clothes pin
4. Cut a rudder out of the foam (we cut two pieces out of sticky backed foam paper and stuck them together to make the rudder thicker)
5. After the paint has dried, glue airplane pieces on as shown above
6. Attach magnets to the back of the clothes pin. . .

And prepare for take off!

 

Ant Thumbprints

We are studying gardens and the bugs that live there this month. One bug we talked about were ants. We made ant thumbprints to discuss the different parts of an ant and how many legs they have.