B is for . . .

. . . block towers. The kids picked a numbered card, identified the number and then built a tower that tall. 

. . . balancing. We practiced balancing on a beam while picking up letter Bs.

. . . bee balancer. We made balancing bees. Each bee was made from a file folder with two pennies attached to the wings. The kids added stripes and a face to their bee and then practiced balancing it across the balance beam.

A is for . . .

. . . apple picking

We used our fine motor skills to pick apples off a tree with tongs. The kids rolled a dice and then picked that many apples off the tree and put them in their bucket. For this activity we used a 6 sided dice and practiced counting the pips (dots) on the side of the dice we rolled. Then we picked that many apples off the tree until our tree was bare. This center was meant to work on the one to one principle when counting. i.e. we count one time for each (one) thing we see.  

I love Makaius's concentration face! :)

For the next apple picking activity we used a 12 sided dice. There were numbered apples on the tree. The kids identified which number they rolled then picked the corresponding apple off the tree. For this activity we were working on identifying numbers. 

 
 . . . ants on a log

Celery, peanut butter and raisins. You can't get more classic than this snack!

. . .  ants

We made thumbprint ants on a letter a. Each child made sure the ants had 3 body parts, 6 legs, 2 antenna, and a face. 

 . . . apples (again.) :)

We did an activity with 10 apples up on top. We did the project seen here, but added an element of complexity. I wrote the numbers using dots instead of writing them completely. The kids connected the dots and traced each number from 1 - 10. Then the kids put the apples in numerical order onto their headband and glued them on. We were working again on number recognition. 

A is for Apple

 Here are some of the apple activities we did during letter A week.

We taste tested apples to decide which color is our favorite.

They really couldn't decide, they like them all. 

We learned that apples have a secret star in the middle if you cut them in half horizontally.

We made apple smiles for snacks

 We picked numbered apples off this tree.

They rolled the dice . . .

Then picked the apple with the corresponding number.

 We practiced fine motor skills by picking apples off this tree with tongs. They flipped a number card, then picked that number of apples off their tree.
 

 We made apple hats to go with Dr. Seuss' Ten Apples Up On Top

Each child had 10 apple cut outs. Each apple was numbered 1 - 10. The kids traced the numbers . . .

. . .then glued them on word strip in the correct order.