An apple a day…lets the tot learn and play through these apple activities! This week we took a look at the most popular fruit eaten by Americans: apples. And let me tell you, even though this fruit is so common, it is something that our preschoolers haven’t really thought about or investigated that much. So while this apple preschool theme is simple, sometimes simple is better. Take a look at our apple literacy activities for preschoolers here.
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Apple Lesson plans
Apple Freeze
Gross Motor Letter Identification Game
“A is for apples / Apples grow on trees / Find any letter / And stop when I say freeze!”
My elementary kiddos would laugh because I am famous for making up songs or chants for everything. I truly believe songs help us remember so much more! Not sure how it works in our brains, but when N’SYNC pops on the radio, I can bust out the whole song without even thinking!
For this gross motor game, I printed off a recording sheet for each student and laminated the lettered apples. Then, I scattered the lettered apple cards around the room. Next, I proceeded to sing my awesome song, and we would freeze on a letter at the end of the song and mark it with a dot marker on our recording sheet. Great way to practice letter identification while up and moving! Got us giggling, too!
Tips: Be sure to go over expectations before playing this game. Practice freezing when the teacher says freeze. Have students place their recording sheet on top of their head when they are done to know when to start singing the awesome song again!
Materials:
- Apple Freeze
- dot markers
- clipboards (optional)
Apple Syllable Smash
Counting Syllables Activity
I’m not sure about your kiddos, but mine love using the hammer! We can just set out a log with some nails in it, and boom! The kids are entertained for at least 45 minutes. In fact, a game of hammerschlagen is perfect for entertaining adults, too!
With this apple syllables smash activity, we incorporated several essential skills. First, the children rolled out three rolls of red play dough, which is also a great way to build up the muscles in their tiny little hands. Then, they said the apple-themed word, which incorporates building their vocabulary bank. Finally, as they said the word, they smashed a ball of play dough for each syllable – perfect for building phonemic awareness. The smashing and the hammer just took engagement to a whole new level of fun with this apple literacy activity for preschoolers!
Materials:
- Apple Syllable Smash
- wooden hammers
- red play dough
- clothespins
Apple Tree ABC
Initial Sound Activity
As a quick letter or letter sound activity, grab Apple Tree ABC. These trees come with three options: uppercase letters, lowercase letters, and initial sound pictures to make it easy to differentiate for your students. We just placed the apple trees on cookie sheets and added magnetic letters on top for a quick setup. But another way to add engagement is to pair this with play dough and play dough stamps. So much fun!
Materials:
Apple Rhymes
Apple Literacy Activities
For this next activity, we sorted these apple rhyme cards into categories based on whether or not they rhyme. This could be done as a whole class or small group at first to demonstrate how to determine if the words rhyme. Then, just add it to your literacy center for the students to complete independently.
To take this apple literacy activity to the next level, we practiced reading onset and rime with word families with the apple word sliders. Cannot believe my little one is beginning to read!
Materials:
Applesauce Writing
Sensory Writing
To work on letter formation, we wrote our letters in applesauce! So fun! Normally, we use salt trays to keep it simple. But I just couldn’t resist using applesauce as a writing medium during our apple theme! The smell, the texture, and the taste just made letter writing so sweet. Literally!
For this letter formation activity, we just used the letter cards from Apple Freeze as a guide to see the shapes of each letter. I set out a red plate for each kiddo with a small amount of applesauce. Then, they practiced writing and saying each letter from the cards. My little one has already asked to do this activity again. Must be the fact that she gets to lick her fingers every time!
Tip: Make sure students wash their hands before this activity as the temptation to lick fingers is too much to handle.
Materials:
- Apple Freeze cards
- red plates
- applesauce
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MORE Apple Activities
This unit, packed full of apple activities, really helped create a deeper understanding of something that we see almost every day. An apple a day… hope you can learn and play, too! Grab the entire unit at a discounted price here! As always, please let me know if you need anything to make these activities work for your little learners!
