Apples Apples Everywhere!

What a fun couple of weeks we've had learning about apples!  The fun part of using a "theme" like this in Kindergarten is that you can incorporate it into everything that you normally teach and learn and do! 

Mrs. Claire, one of our awesome parent volunteers, joined us for center time and worked with the children on identifying and ordering numbers.  I just printed the number on--you guessed it--apples!

Mrs. Claire also "played" an uppercase and lowercase letter sort game with apples on an apple tree! 

I found this idea on Making Learning Fun.

Nathan and Audrey worked hard to match those letters! 



Abby and Chloë are having a blast! 

I also filled my book shelf with Apple Books for the children to explore this week.  They checked some out during reading time and even took some home to share with their families!

So many of these wonderful thematic books I have collected over the years from those inexpensive Scholastic Book Orders.  Thank goodness for Scholastic!

During Center Time, Mrs. Misenheimer starting painting hands and arms.  We wanted to create an Apple Tree!  The arm, hand, and fingers were painted brown to become, on paper, the trunk, limbs, and branches.

After that dried, we did green hand prints all over the branches for the leaves and then red thumbprints for apples!  I am a huge fan of any art project you can make from a hand print! 

We also put our reading skills to good use by sharing in a reading of this apple poem:

Apple, Apple, on the tree,

I know that you are good for me!

You are fun to munch and crunch,

For my snack or for my lunch!

Apple, Apple, on the tree,

I know that you are good for me!

 After reading several times throughout the week, the children get to illustrate around the poem.

September 26th was also the anniversary of Johnny Appleseed's birthday.  We read stories and talked about what it might be like to walk in his shoes--if he ever wore any!



One Book Basket At A Time

There is no question about it--my books are my most prized classroom resource!  I've worked hard in my 8 years of teaching to build a collection of books to supplement my teaching. 

I began my collection during my later years of high school and throughout college.  Yard Sales were the best place to look...and sometimes still are! When I started teaching I used Scholastic as much as I could for multiple copies of picture books and big books.  Then, when I got into grant writing, I was able to purchase multiple sets of books by specific author, genre, and topic.

I have my books organized in several ways.  As you can see, I am NOT a  fancy label making teacher.  Give me an index card and a permanent marker and I am good to go.  I always put a matching label on the back of each book so the children will know exactly where each book lives. 

Some baskets are organized by AUTHOR.

Some baskets are organized by FAMILIAR CHARACTER.

Some books are organized by GENRE.

Some books are organized by SUBJECT/THEME.

Some books are organized by TEXT STRUCTURE.

So my question is, how and when do you introduce these baskets to your students? In the past I have had them all out on shelves when the students start school.  They are off limits and we "open" one basket at a time as we discuss it.  I've never had a problem with this. The children understand very well which baskets they can choose from and which ones they can't. 

This year, I actually have the closet space to store them all away from plain sight.  I can physically bring them out one at a time.  I feel like this would build excitement like a big surprise!  

I think I will "hide" them away for now.  It might make for some empty shelf space in my classroom, but the excitement will be worth it when I bring out a new basket of books for little hands to hold and little eyes to read.