We’ve been at it again over here at The Kindergarten All-Stars! As we’re gearing up to go back to school, I’ve developed my apples mini unit for purchase over at Teachers Pay Teachers. I’ve used this unit for years but now it’s ready for you to use it in your classrooms!
In this bundle students will explore various science skills & topics such as; investigating, labeling, life cycle, and vocabulary. Language Arts and math curriculum are integrated into the activities. The activities are aligned to Kindergarten Common Core standards. The packet includes 25 pages of print & go workpages, a emergent reading book, a writing prompt, and 2 art projects. I cannot wait to use this unit again in my classroom and show you more pictures! If you’re as excited as I am to use this unit, you can purchase it by clicking on the picture below.
As we finished up our apples unit in our class we read stories about picking applies and making things from apples. Some stories were fiction like The Biggest Apple Ever by Steven Kroll, and some stories are nonfiction like A Day at the Apple Orchard by Megan Faulkner. We also watched a video and sang a song about the life cycle of an apple. Students then made their own life cycle of an apple. You can find the Life Cycle of an Apple FREEBIE on teachers pay teachers here.
Students also got to help make hot apple cider by taking apple slices and putting them into a juicer, and they watched the juice come out the other side. I finished making the cider by adding cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice and letting it heat up in a crock pot.
Finally for writing, students wrote about if they liked apple cider by completing the sentence and drawing a picture about apples / apple orchards.
This week we started our apples unit and began the unit by reading the story Ten Apples up on Top by Theo. LeSeig. Then students picked a number and made a cut and paste art project that illustrated how many apples they can count up on top of their head.
It is apples week in the Kindergarten All-Stars classroom. We read apple math books like “Ten Red Apples” and “Ten Apples on Top“, and then we created our own apple trees and wrote the number of apples on them.
Then we read the story “The Biggest Apple Ever” and compared that story with “The Biggest Pumpkin Ever“. Then we made homemade apple cider using a juicer and wrote about the apple cider using describing what it looks like, smells like, and tastes like.
After our field trip on Friday we learned how other places participate in the fall harvest. Our class talked about how where I come from (in Michigan) we pick apples. We learned the letter Aa and read the book “Red Are the Apples” by Marc Harshman. We also retold the key details by remembering what were the different things on the farm and what colors they were.
Then we made a text to self connection by trying homemade apple cider (as they made apple cider at the end of the story). We learned about the five senses and used three of them to describe the apple cider in a writing activity.
Today was a BIG day for Mr. Daniel’s K-1 All-Stars! Today was the last Saturday make-up day for school. While students had to come to school today, we tried to make it a day of fun as well as a day of learning.
As I have said before we are in the middle of two units here in our K-1 Class. First we’ve been talking about fall, as well as our head to toe unit. Where student’s learn more about themselves and how they are important. But we talk more about our body and how we grow and change over time. Also in this theme is talking about our five senses. Today in Mr. Daniel’s K-1 All-Stars students used their sense of smell and taste to enjoy a fall treat, homemade Apple Cider!
Students discussed about how it smelled and tasted, and then we created a list of describing words. Afterwards students practiced writing using a topic sentence “We had apple cider.” Students have been learning in 1st grade how to write using a main idea and giving two details. Today the whole class wrote about their experience with apple cider!
After we had the apple cider I showed students on the smart board pictures of Michigan (grew I am from) and how apples are harvested in the fall, to be sold to stores, or put into to make things like apple cider. Our All-Stars then got to be a part of the fall harvest as they went out berry picking after lunch. Our K-1 Aide, Amanda, showed the whole class how Agutac (or also known as Eskimo ice-cream) is made and she used their berries to make the Agutac.
I think it was a great compare and contrast for our K-1 students. They got to see how other places prepare for winter by harvesting and gathering their food. Then they got to learn about and experience some of their own culture and be a part of the fall harvest!
