Apple Trees

Yesterday we continued our work with the letter A and color red.  We added our first shape as well:  circle.  It was my original intention to start a family theme unit, but I kept coming up with so many ideas for the skills we were working on that I didn't have time for the theme.  I really like themes, but I'm thinking that we may stick with letters, numbers, shapes and colors for a while as the kids seem very content with that.  Once we cover all of the basics, I think it will be easy to incorporate them into themes.  We'll see.  It just sort of depends how the kids are doing and what I think they need.

What starts with the letter A, is red (sometimes) and is sort of circular?  Apples, of course!  We practiced our short a sound and identified apples as an "a" word.  I introduced an apple fingerplay.  I found it in Teacher Created Materials Early Childhood Themes Through the Year.

"Five Red Apples"
Five red apples hanging in a tree.  (Hold up 5 fingers)
The juiciest apples that you ever did see. (Point to eyes)
The wind came by and gave an angry frown, (Make an angry face)
And one little apple came tumbling down. (Roll arms and point to the ground)

Repeat with four, three, etc.

Following the fingerplay, we made apple trees.  The purpose of this was to work on cutting skills (particularly holding scissors correctly and holding the paper with the opposite hand).  It was exciting to see improvement over just last week when we were cutting.  I helped most of the kids guide the paper, but I didn't have to do hand-over-hand on the scissors with any!  Progress.

Here's apple tree making in action!