Apples and Pumpkins and Fall, Oh My!

Hey guys! Once again...it's been awhile since I posted! So sorry! Kindergarten is crazy! I feel like time is going by super fast and very slow all at the same time. Does that make sense? It's just making me so tired. I've been going to bed at like 9 most nights so blogging hasn't been a priority. In an effort to get caught up, I'm going to post about both apples and pumpkins!

I love this time of year and there are always lots of fun things to teach about during the fall. The kids love learning about apples and pumpkins and it's a perfect time to learn all about the parts of a plant and its life cycle.

First we started with apples. In reading we did several review games that were apple related including a beginning sound sort and a letters/words sort:

 

In math we did a matching sets games where the kids had to match a number with the tree with that number of apples on it: 

  

Every day my kids do a math problem in their journals and this week we had apple related probems each day: 

 

At the end of the week we did a super fun apple tasting activity where the kids voted on their favorite apple. After they tasted all four apples and voted, the kids filled out a graph:

We also learned about Johnny Appleseed and read a book about him. The kids then completed a web with things they learned about him: 

 Our craft for the week was painting apples with watercolors. They turned out beautiful:

 The next week (or the week of Halloween) we moved on to pumpkins.  We read two books over the week to learn more about the life cycle of a pumpkin:

During Science the kids filled out a web on what the learned and drew the life cycle:

In the middle of the week we took a field trip to a farm where the kids learned more about pumpkins and how they grow. Before we left the kids predicted what they would see and when we returned they filled out a checklist: 

In Math we did lots of fun pumpkin-related activities including pumpkin patterns, pumpkin seed book and halloween counting book: 

Just like during apple week, the kids did pumpkin-related word problems in their journals during pumpkin week:

 

 During the week we watched one of my favorite Halloween movies, Spookley the Square Pumpkin. The kids then made a Spookley craft where the chose an adjective to describe him:

 

We ended the week by carving two pumpkins. I had the kids help me get the seeds out and then they voted on what kind of face I should carve:

I then had the kids draw how-to carve a pumpkin: 

If you liked these activities, please check out the pictures below! The first four people to comment can get either my apple or pumpkin unit for free! Leave your email and your choice in the comments below! 

Fall Fun: Apples

I love this time of year! It's starting to get cooler (in Texas, cooler is mid 80s instead of low 100s), holiday time is coming and fall activities are so fun! Before Fall Break my kiddos learned all about apples. They loved it! We used a lot of activities from my apple unit. We also used several activities from Deanna Jump's apple unit.

We started out reading Deanna's book "Who Took the Apples?" We then made our own book where the kids wrote their names in the book. I made it into a class book and put it in our library. The kids love reading this book! 

   

          

                 

In reading we have been talking about the difference between upper and lowercase letters. The kids sorted letters using my apple ABC game.

          

In Reading we also reviewed the sight words we have learned so far this year. The kids made an apple tree and wrote their sight words on the apples.

      

          

 In math we were learning about patterns that week so the kids practiced patterns by playing my apple pattern game. They also colored their own apple patterns. We also talked about how we can make patterns with more than just colors (size, object, shape, etc.)

 

             

 

The kids also played the apple tree matching  game to review matching sets. The kids would match a number card with a tree with the same number of apples. Later the kids did a cut and paste activity. 

During Science/Social Studies we read a book about apples and we created a class book about why we like apples.

 

 

 

  (they come off a tree and they are juicy.)

 

(it's America's favorite fruit)

 

(you can dip them in chocolate)  

We also talked about Johnny Appleseed after reading a book about him and watching a short scholastic video about his life. The kids colored a Johnny Appleseed picture. We have been working on taking our time while coloring. The kids also made a Johnny Appleseed hat from my unit and wore their hats all day.

 

 

 

  

 

 My favorite activity was the Favorite Apple graph. I bought two apples of gala, red delicious, granny smith and fiji. I cut up each into 18 pieces and kept one out for the kids to remember which apple they are tasting. 

 

The kids ate all four apples and then we took a vote. We  recorded our information on our graph and answered information about our data. In case you were curious, red delicious won! :) 

 

On the back of their graph I let the kids draw a picture of them eating the apples. They turned out super cute! 

      

      

Finally, we water colored apples to decorate our class bulletin board. I used Deanna's apple outline from her unit. The kids used red, green and yellow to paint their apples. They cut them out and we added a stem and leaf. I put them up on the bulletin board and put a picture of each kid in the middle of their apple. I used the title "Apples of My Eye." It is precious! :)  

 

 

We had tons of fun with apples! I can't wait for more fall fun with pumpkins and Halloween. Stay tuned for more fun fall activities! Check out my apple unit by clicking on the picture below if you are interested in any of these activities!

 

 

You can also get my apple unit in my Fall Combo back along with my pumpkin unit! You'll save a few bucks too! :)