September, 2021

Apples and Honey: A sweet new year!

How wonderful that the new school year and the Jewish new year lined up. A new beginning is an opportunity for us to reflect on where we are coming from and where we are going! It’s a chance to find new friends, learn new skills, and build new interests. Inspired by the traditions of Rosh Hashanah we explored apples and honey and talked about ways to be a “sweet friend!”

We are getting into the classroom routine! Children have started choosing their jobs every day! There are many fun options, like Line Leader, Plants Helper, Attendance Counter, Meteorologist, and more! We also have learned about “Heart Prints” a great way for the children to start paying attention to the kindness of their friends, and themselves!

Here are some of our apple activities and investigations:

Apple Taste Test: Visual Discrimination, Data Gathering, Recording and Analysis, Number Sense

We predicted which color of apple would be our favorite, then the children tasted Granny Smith, Red Delicious and Golden Delicious apples to determine which they liked best. They found their picture among those of their classmates and attached it to a graph to indicate their favorites. We looked at the graph and counted the number of names placed under each apple color. We determined the overall favorite to be yellow.

Then we took some time to talk about the differences we noticed between the apples.

Apple Color Sorting: Visual Discrimination, Sorting

We sorted apples of three different colors (red, yellow, and green) into their matching “baskets!

Apple Patterning: Visual Discrimination, Patterning

We have been practicing recognizing an ABAB pattern at circle time everyday on our calendar. We had an opportunity to practice and reenforce that skill with dot bottles, and patterns to follow!

Sink or Float: Prediction, Experimentation, Observation

After holding an apple to feel its weight, the children predicted whether it would sink or float. Each child placed their name on a graph indicating their prediction. We placed the apple in a large, clear container and saw that the apple floated! Enthusiastically, the children added the plastic apples we have to see if they would sink or float. When we found that they all stayed afloat, the children went searching for something that would sink. We tried plastic animals, pompoms, and Lillian brought over her acorns to test! Most of the items the children chose did not sink. Finally, we discovered rocks and shells sank to the bottom!

Sweet me: Social emotional skills, Representational art

We took parts of the apples we tasted that were left when the activity finished and each child used them to make a “sweet” self portrait! Then they each came up with one way that they would be “sweet” this year!

Sweet me: Social emotional skills, Team work, Community building

Sitting together, we took turns sharing ways we could all be sweet this year! Together we came up with:

We can share food, like apples or honey!

We can share a toy!

We can say, “please!”

We can say, “I love you!”

We can be gentle if we touch someone, and we can ask before touching someone!

We can be careful with other friends' toys!

We can make a present, or a drawing for someone!

We can give a hug!

We can pat a pet!

Letter practice!

In addition to singing the abc's every day, and noticing the letters of our names, we also have been practicing writing letters in sand, and interacting with sensory letters. We have been practicing the letters a, b, s, m, f, and t!

Math practice!

Of course, we count every day during calendar and our daily countdown. We practice interpreting pictographs when we do our weather chart. And we pattern during meeting, too! We also used "apple trees" to practice counting 1:1 and adding up the apples we made on the tree and on the ground!