Apples

I don't know about you but my school year has been so busy.  I thought this year would be easier now that I had a year under my belt in first grade but that was not the case.  I still feel like I am working day to day.  

Last week I took my first grade class to the apple orchard.  In order to prepare for our trip we created some apple art.  It was hard to find art that our kindergarten program had not already done however I did find this idea from Deep Space Sparkle.  I didn't have my first graders trace apples I had them draw their own.  We looked at apples and talked about their imperfect shapes.  I didn't want to purchase burlap for the background so we used some scrapbook paper that I already had and sticky tape for the stems and leaves.  My first graders loved mixing the paint and painting their apples.  

For Social Studies we read from a pre-made book from 1st Grade Hip Hip Hooray.    I purchased this unit at the last minute and didn't have time to do all the wonderful ideas.  Next year I will be prepared and have more time.  I highly recommend this unit.  The first graders enjoyed the true and false questions after the story.  Who would have guessed??

There are lots of wonderful books to read about apples however this year the first grade favorites were:

Believe it or not most of the children said they had never heard these stories before.  It is really hard for me to find stories they are unfamiliar with.  

If you are interested in my kindergarten apple ideas Click Here.