We made it to our final preschool day of week 1 and it went better than I imaged! Here’s what we had planned.
BOOK OF THE DAY AND STEAM ACTIVITY
ABC Fruit by Heather Blume
This book was a perfect fit this week! For one, it opened with “A is for apple”, but it was also written and illustrated by my mother’s friend and coworker. It’s a creative take on your typical ABC picture association book and introduces your child to some new and interesting fruits. Lane LOVES fruit and now, thanks to this book, both ugli fruit and yellow watermelon are on our list of must tries!
The STEAM activity we did today required very little supplies but packed a lot of fun for my early learner. Just one apple. That’s all you need. I first sliced it in half and let my son inspect. He found brown pieces in the middle, those were the seeds. He determined that the outside and inside were different colors and textures. I explained to him that the apple has a skin and a flesh, but it’s not like our skin and flesh. I reminded him how some apples have different colored skin but are the same inside-this could be a fun way to start a lesson on different ethnicities. Lane took one half of the apple and a spoon and started digging away for more seeds and treasure. I took the other half and carved out the core so he could easily see each part individually. We review the stem, core, skin and the flesh. It was a little messy but it really helped him learn some apple terminology.
Supplies Needed:
- one apple
- and maybe a small spoon of discovery
SING-A-LONG
Apples and Bananas by Super Simple Songs
I’m sure you already know this song. We listened to this one more than a few times so we know it pretty well now too.
WORKSHEET
Since our first activity today was to cut open an apple and learn about the insides, I put Lane’s noggin to the test and made a coloring page that let him identify the apple parts on the paper and color it the way he remember the apple from earlier. He needed a little help remembering the names of everything but was so excited to show me how much he had learned! Click on the “Apple Anatomy” link above for a free printable worksheet.
HANDS ON LEARNING AND CRAFT CORNER
Today we combined our hands on activity with our craft. I prepared lots of construction paper shapes beforehand. There were big yellow and red circles, medium white circles, tiny brown triangles, medium green triangles, and long brown rectangles and I combined them all in a bowl for Lane to sort. This was another opportunity for him to practice some fine motor functions and both color and shape recognition. We also counted how many pieces we had of each shape. The next step was to take the shapes we had available and turn them into apples. I cannot believe how much fun Lane had with this! He did the activity so well and really nailed the glue stick part. He glued all the apple parts together and then repeated that until all of his shapes were used up. Then I helped him position and glue them onto a white piece of paper. Seriously, what do parents do with all the school crafts you collect over the years because I love them all so much and just can’t throw these away?! (I think I’ve got a few ideas for all the projects and come time for Mother’s Day, there will be a post for that.)
Supplies Needed:
- construction paper in white, red, yellow, green, brown
- scissors
- glue
- small bowl
Ember + Pine 