Dramatic Play
Apple Orchard/Leaf Raking
Fellow teachers: I've tried many different ways to "hang" the apples each year. Each way has its pros and cons. This year I just did balls of masking tape and it worked great for a day, but each day after pulling and placing the balls so many times, I had to replace it, which wasn't a big deal. If you've tried this in your dramatic play areas at school, let me know how you did it! This idea is one of my most pinned, so I'd love to see how it's working for you.
Then added the Pumpkin Patch after 2 days. Also, foud the cutest banners and apple bags at Target that I had to have!! Perfect for this center. I love fall!
Blocks
Wood train sets
They loved it, so it was an option all week, along with the 4 seasons puzzle and usual blocks.
Art
Tissue paper squares and liquid starch painting
Spin art, love how these turned out! It's a popular and busy center.
We used the art table to make our homemade applesauce for snack, then got out dot paints.
Small Manipulatives
Pumpkin shape-matching mats (perfect review of last week) from Totschooling
Fall Pattern Cards
Lacing pumpkins and Flat marbles and pumpkin and apple dot pages from Totschooling
Magnet Board was Ten Little Apples Up on Top. I LOVE that this board made them curious about the book, because I got called here over and over to read this, and it either was followed by asking me to read something else, or them recreating the book on the magnet board.
Reading
Writing
Fall stickers
Fall/Halloween stencils
Texture rubbing plates
Snack
Day 1, we tasted red, yellow, and green apples, colored our favorite to hang in the tree, and graphed our results. (picture below in large group section)
Day 2, we had grape juice and grape jelly made from our own backyard grapes, and learned how they're juiced.
Day 3, we made and ate our own applesauce.
Outside
The sensory table was an "apple pie" mix with oatmeal, cinnamon sticks, and toy apples/pom poms, plus cups and scoops. It was fun to watch them make muffins and cookies.
After 2 days, I changed it to this sensory fall mix (thanks Dollar Tree), that we also used the next week, so they had 3 days with this one. They loved sifting through for "treasures" (anything plastic and/or shiny).
Large Group
We learned the songs, Round and Round the Seasons Go, Leaves are Falling (they love this one because they get to throw leaves), and 5 Little Pumpkins.
Our word was deciduous, which is my favorite word to teach all year, and the one they often remember the best because it's so fun to say. Each day we watched a different Sesame Street video to help us learn the word.
The deciduous rap
Deciduous word on the street
Day 1, we played a leaf rhyming game and matched rhyming words. Raking Rhymes from Kelly's Kindergarten.
Day 2, we read about pumpkins, counted pumpkins, and decorated little pumpkins.
Day 3, we took a fall walk to find deciduous trees and signs of fall.
Small Group
My group made karo syrup leaves for our tree, and the others made leaves with the leaf rubbing plates.
My group counted apples with my apple counting mats (we're going to be practicing this A LOT), the other group colored an apple life cycle page. Counting mats are from Kelly's Kindergarten.
I can't tell you the guilt I feel when I send home what looks like a worksheet, but there's always a reason for anything I do. I honestly didn't care if they learned the apple life cycle by coloring it, because I doubt they did (worksheets don't work), but this group is still learning to work together without the teacher, and other tasks I've tried have required my interventions, leaving my group waiting. I value the small group learning time to help teach hard concepts on an individualized level, so I need the other group to be able to work alone. And the coloring went great!
