An Apple a Day...

We had such a great time learning about apples this week!  We spent time thinking of all the things we knew about apples and what kinds of things are made from apples.  We read apple books, sorted apples, and of course, ate apples!

On Monday and Tuesday, we painted with apple peels (these paintings should be up in the hallway later this week), learned how to use the Math Center, and practiced our cutting and gluing skills by cutting out trunks for apple trees.

Later in the week, we experienced apple play dough.

 It was pretty gooey (Miss Katie forgot the cream of tarter)!  

We also practiced sorting by color, shape, and size using apple cut-outs.

 

We made a "Counting Apples" book where students needed to draw the number of apples indicated on each page.  This was tricky for lots of us!

And of course, we ate apples!  We tried yellow, red, and green apples, and also used good descriptive language to tell others how each kind tasted.  Some were sweet, some were sour, crunch, soft, etc.

 

After tasting each kind of apple, we then graphed the results and counted how many students liked each kind of apple best.  Students also colored a page for a class book that showed their favorite kind of apple.

 

On Thursday and Friday, students used their critical thinking skills to play "What's Missing?"  Miss Briann showed children a group of 5-8 objects, then secretly removed one of the objects from the tray, and the students had to try to figure out which item was missing.  Most everyone did really well!

 

Students were also introduced to tracing this week.  We practiced going REALLY slow, taking our time, and tried really hard to stay on the line!  This is also our first taste of "independent" work time. 

The best part of the week might have been our "Apple Party" on Friday!  Students all helped to make applesauce to have at our party!

Chopping apples is hard work (and great exercise for our hands)!  We used butter knives to cut the apples and some students told us they were not allowed to use knives :) 

 

 We also tried apple pie (with a little bit of ice cream, of course!) and apple cider.  YUM!

Thank you to the families that brought apples for us to use this week! 

We also learned an important skill this week using our Second Step curriculum - focusing attention.  When we focus our attention, we block out all distractions and look at one thing (or person).  We've been practicing focusing attention during morning meeting, when listening to directions, and when friends are talking.  We will send home the practice sheets Monday with some activities for you to try at home.  

This week, we will start to learn about fall.  We will learn about the color orange, and squares.  We will have another show and tell day on Wednesday of this week - please bring a small ORANGE item to share with the class on WEDNESDAY. 

Upcoming Dates:
Friday, October 5: Scholastic Book Orders Due
Monday, October 15:  Picture Day
Tuesday, October 16:  Trip to Hinchley's Dairy Farm - more info coming this week!
Wednesday, October 24: Afternoon/Evening Conferences
Thursday, October 25: NO SCHOOL - Morning Conference times
Friday, October 26: NO SCHOOL
Tuesday, October 30: Cargill Halloween Bash