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EARLY CHILDHOOD NEWSLETTER

Volume 5, Issue 15
September 10, 2007

A WORD ABOUT THIS ISSUE'S THEME

Teach your class our poem as you introduce your unit on apples. Invite them to clap out the rhythm as they say it aloud.

What good is an apple
So shiny and red?
Make smooth apple butter,
Or a pie instead.

What good is an apple
Cut, mashed, then pressed?
Make a drink called cider
So sweet -- it's the best.

What good is an apple
Way up in a tree?
A perfect kind of snack
For you and for me!

Susan LaBella
Editor, Early Childhood Education Newsletter

ACTIVITY IDEAS

WHAT KINDS OF SEEDS DO YOU SEE?
Talk with children about seeds that give us plants. Explain that seeds can be different shapes and sizes -- even a coconut is a seed! Cut apart an apple, showing children the star of seeds. Show children other seeds such as those from a watermelon, pumpkin, cantaloupe, sunflower, and marigold. Next, invite children to estimate which seeds will fill a clear plastic cup with the smallest number of seeds and the largest number of seeds. Chart the children's estimates. Fill the cup with each kind of seed and let children compare their estimates to what really happened.

I AM AN APPLE TREE, ARE YOU?
Let children pretend to be apple trees and use their bodies to show each tree part. Have children make a circle. Play music and tell children their feet and toes are the tree's underground roots. Let them wiggle their toes as they imagine their toes growing long and spreading deep into the dirt. Next children can pretend that from their ankles to their shoulders is the tree's trunk. They should keep the "trunk" straight and stiff. Children's arms are tree branches which they should hold out or up. Instruct children to wiggle their fingers, which are leaves that move in the wind. Finally, the children make fists that are the tree's apples.

TAKE A TASTE
Provide a variety of apple products -- cider, butter, sauce, juice, muffins or bread, and so on. Let children sample each. Then give them a cut-out paper apple. Invite each child to choose his or her favorite apple product and draw it on their apple cut-out. Next create a graph grid on an easel pad. Draw a simple picture of each apple product in each box down the left side of the grid. Let each child come forward and tape his/her apple on the appropriate graph row. Review your apple graph, helping students to see which product was the favorite and least favorite.

MMMMM! HOT APPLE PIE
Let your children help make these simple mini-pies. Give each child a canned refrigerated biscuit. Flatten out the biscuits and let each child spoon a little canned apple pie filling onto his/her biscuit. Fold each biscuit in half. Bake according to biscuit package directions. Let them cool for children to enjoy.

MORE APPLE ACTIVITIES
Brainstorm with children words that describe apples -- words such as round, red, yellow, seeds, tree, juicy, and so on. List their words on an easel pad and read them aloud to children. Then

invite children to create two-line apple rhymes such as
"Look I found
An apple that's round!"
write the word "APPLE" vertically on the board and encourage children to use apple words to create an acrostic poem.
study cut apples and their seeds with magnifying glasses. Help children find words on the easel pad that describe their findings. Let them print the words and draw pictures on pieces of apple-shaped paper.
MEET MRS. APPLE
Create Mrs. Apple by giving each child an apple. Using toothpicks, children will attach grapes, raisins, cauliflower, carrot slices, even marshmallows to make a funny friendly face.

ON THE WEB

Check out the following Web sites for additional background and activities.