Apple Books

Apple Countdown by Joan Holub - A counting book that follows a preschool class as they take a field trip to an apple farm.  I liked that it talked about the different seasons of an apple tree as well.


Applesauce Season by Eden Ross Lipson - follows a family through the process of making applesauce, starting with picking their apples at the market, to cooking it and then using it on all different types of food.  I was hoping to make applesauce with the kids this week, but it didn't quite happen!


The Apple Pie That Papa Baked by Lauren Thompson - A story about a pie that a father bakes for his daughter. It is told in a "The House that Jack Built" pattern, and the kids really loved the repetition and building of the text.

 Ten Red Apples by Pat Hutchins - A cute farm themed counting book.  Love the illustrations!

Disclosure: The links for the books are connected through Amazon Associates and I may earn a small revenue if you click through and purchase any book listed.

Apple Preschool Corner

M is 3.5 years old

We started school up again this week and M (3.5) is now doing preschool exclusively.  We will have a theme each week and will alternate our daily themed activities with literacy lessons.

Start of the Year Assesment
M know all basic concepts (shapes, colors, letters, numbers, etc.).  She's great at sorting, categorizing, matching, and other similar skills.  She knows her beginning letter sounds and can generally count up to 20 with no prompting, and up to 100 if we prompt her (20, 30, 40, etc).  She is so close to reading.  I'm going to spend our first 8 or 9 weeks reviewing letter and beginning letter sounds and then we'll move into advanced phonics work from there.  This year I'd also like to work with her on her writing skills.  She is turning out to be left handed so that's a bit of a challenge for me as far as teaching goes.  I'd also like to work more on her fine motor skills and practical life skills.  We're expecting a new baby in February, so I'd love to have her more capable of doing tasks around the house to help out by then.

Preschool Skills Printables
We used some printables from A Heart For Home, including the dominoes, color by number, apple basket puzzle, patterning, sequencing, and memory pages.

Art and Sensory
I punched holes in a strip of paper and M practiced her fine motor skills in finger painting each hole. Then we added green stems on our little apples. Source: No Time for Flashcards.

I cut apples in half and M painted with them. I cut little scores in the sides so it was easier for her to hold.

We bought several different types of apples and had a taste test one day as our snack.  This was amazing to me because M has never liked apples, but she ate several slices of each type!  Her favorites were Golden Delicious (which she said was very sweet) and Fuji (which she called "refreshing").  I've been trying to encourage her to use more adjectives, so this was the perfect activity for that.

We played with apple scented play dough. She practiced making letters as well. Recipe: My Montessori Journey.

Preschool Trays

Stringing Apple Cheerios on a pipe cleaner

Using tweezers to pick up fake apples by their stems and place them in the egg tray

Literacy
We reviewed letters A, B, C this week.  I used some printables from Confessions of a Homeschooler - the do-a-dot, tracing, poke, and letter hunt pages.  I also made up some beginning letter sound printables as a supplement.  Again, I'm not going into too much detail with the letters here because she knows them so well already.  I just want to do a quick review after our lazy summer before I get into more advanced reading lessons.

That's all for this week!  To see what other preschoolers are learning this week, check out the official Preschool Corner website!

Beginning Letter Sounds Printable

I posted a black and white version of this last year before I had a color printer.  Here is my updated color version, which we are using for letter review.  I hope someone out there finds these useful!

ABC cards

Apple Tot School

R is 21 months old 

We started school up again this week, and we have officially moved M (3.5) to purely preschool while R (21 months) is our new star of Tot School!  We will have a theme each week, but our theme work will also be interspersed with whatever other activities I find that I feel he needs to work on.

Start of Year Assessment
R is starting off a bit behind where M was when she was his age.  This is partly because he's a second child and has gotten the short end of the stick as far as my attention goes.  Also, he's just a different person than she was.  He is still not talking very much.  He has a few words, but is mostly content to let his sister talk for him all day.  He has a few concepts but still doesn't know colors or shapes very well.  These are all things I work with him on throughout this year.  I won't be focusing too much on letters or numbers until he gets caught up on vocabulary and basic concepts.

Art and Sensory
I punched holes in a strip of paper and R practiced his fine motor skills in finger painting each hole.  Then we added green stems on our little apples.  Source: No Time for Flashcards.

I cut apples in half and R painted with them.  I cut little scores in the sides so it was easier for him to hold.

We bought several different types of apples and enjoyed them as a snack.

We played with apple scented play dough.  Recipe: My Montessori Journey

Tot Trays

Pouring apple cheerios.  -They mostly ended up in his mouth :)

Putting Styrofoam apples into egg tray using fingers to pick up by the stem.

Placing apple stickers onto a sheet of paper.

That's all for this week! To see what other toddlers are learning this week, check out the official Tot School Website!