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Apples Week 1

Hello Spoede Pre-K Parents!

We started our Apple Unit this week and will continue talking about apples and incorporating them in our learning for one more week! After fall break we will finish the month of October with all things fall and halloween.

The week actually kicked off on Sunday when I got to see some of my Pre-K kids, siblings, and former students at the Spoede Family Fun Day. It looked like students of all ages were having a great time.

Monday: We introduced our Apple Unit by reading an Apple Poem called Apples with Ashley Apple. During morning centers, we started with Alphabet games, puzzles and activities. We also had a math area where we worked on one-to-one correspondence while counting and matching numerals on a key to the number of dots on a lock. Some students were practicing writing their friends names. We did an Apple Name Cutting activity where we had to cut our name apart and glue it back together. Cutting their name into individual letters helps students to begin seeing that words are made up of smaller distinct units (letters.). Building the name back together works on letter recognition, sequencing, and print awareness. And of course, great fine motor strengtheing with cutting and gluing. Then we did a math apple seed counting activity, matching the number of seeds to a numeral.

Tuesday: We added apples into bushels using our finger prints and had to put the correct number in each bushel. The students are practicing number recognition, one-to-one correspondence (one apple per number), fine motor skills and must maintain focus to stop at a designated number. It's also a fun sensory experience. Centers involved small groups or partners building with blocks, putting together an alphablet train puzzle, fishing for the alphabet, and cutting apart and putting back together students names on a rainbow pencil. In the afternoon, we had Music and movement with Ms. Li.

Wednesday: We cut apples in half and made apple prints. Science was incorporated with creative art. Students observe the cross section of an apple, see the skin, the flesh and the seeds before painting. Reinforces repeating shape (stamping) and pattern creation. And it takes fine motor strength and hand eye coordination to make a clear print. We also patterned apples with red, yellow and green stickers. Students learn to create, extend and replicate patterns using color. Practices color recognition, working memory (what comes next), sorting and fine motor strengthening. We played Roll a Dice and Cover Apples. This game helps with one-to-one correspondence, subitizing (recognizing small quantity without counting each object), number recognition and quantity-symbol association. "Just a Dot, Not a Lot" is a saying we use when trying to work on our fine motor control when using Elmer's Glue. Glue control is explicitely taught as the kids put one dot of glue on each black dot on the picture. Each dot is then covered by a small piece of precut red paper. The apples turned out great. Wednesday afternoon, we had a visit from the Creve Coeur Fire Department . They talked about the equipment and some safety rules. We were able to show the fire fighters how much we know about fire safety. Prior going out to see the fire truck, we read No Dragons for Tea, (A fire safety book for kids) and practiced feeling the door, crawling on the ground, calling 911, and stop, drop and roll.

Thursday: We started out our morning learning about how to make the letter A using Handwriting Without Tears wooden big lines and little lines. "Start at the top (center). Big line slides down. Big line slides down Little line across at the middle. We practiced the letter A in our Handwriting without Tear workbooks. Mid-morning we attended our first all school assembly this year. The focus was on the letter S in Spoede R.O.C.K.S., which stands for safety. We sat on the stage with our 4th Grade Buddies and did a fantastic job of listening to the Safety message about how to stay safe at school. They discussed 2 of the Universal expectations during this assembly, including Hallway and Car Dismissal.

After snack and recess, we made Apple Volcanoes using bakig soda and vinegar, with added food color for a cool effect. Each student had their own apple and did a great job of following multi-step directions. First, they poured the baking soda into a hollowed out apple. Next, they added food coloring. Finally, they added the vinegar, which was the agent that caused the chemical reaction and caused the Apple-cano erupt. We observed the ingredients react together and change into a new substance, bubbles (CO2 gas). In the afternoon, we completed the Letter A Dot Marker activity, working on pencil grip, hand and finger strength, dexterity, and hand-eye coordinatoin to dab on each circle. Normally, we get together with our 4th Grade Buddies On Friday. However, with the Early Release they came to our room on Thurday instead. We worked together with our Buddies to build structures with Apple pieces and tooth picks. This hands on STEAM Activity (Science,Technology, Engineering, Art and Math) provided the kids with an opportunity to work on engineering and design, structural stability, balance and gravity and design process of rebuilding and trying something else if it wasn't stable. (Test, fail, analyze, and improve.).We saw great engineering process taking place. The original challenge was to try and make the tallest structure; However, the structures were all different shapes and sizes and sturdiness. At the end, we did a museum walk and admired at everyones' hard work.

Friday: We had our exciting apple taste testing. We tasted Red Gala, Yellow Fuji, and Granny Smith Apples. I was surprised how many of the students liked the Granny Smith. They described it a spicy but some chose it at their favorite! Others did not! All good scientists record their data so we recorded which apple we liked by coloring a thumbs up or a thumbs down next to each color. On Monday, we will make a graph with each student picking their favorite apple. We also tasted apple cider and apple juice. We observed the cloudiness and the thickness of the unfiltered apple cider, which is closer to raw pressed apples. The apple juice was sweeter and the pulp and solid pieces were filtered out. The consistency, as much as the flavor, may have been the deciding factor. Apple juice won almost unanimously. In Art with Ms. Tara, the student's made monster masks with cut out facial features that they glued to a large paper bag with a rectangle cut out for the student's face. They decorated the spooky monsters with paint markers as well

Next week, we will finish up our apple unit. Besides learning about graphing for collecting information, we will be doing some apple measurement and other Apple themed activities. How many apples tall is each student? How many magnet squares does our apple weigh?

Upcoming Dates to Remember:

10/14-Conferences

10/15-Conferences

10/16-Early Release @1:07

10/17&10/20-No School! Fall Break

10/24- Spoede's Annual Trunk or Treat at 6:00

10/31-Halloween Party and Costume Parade

***I went through our cubbies and several students are without extra clothes. Some have shorts and t-shirts that probably should be switched out now that the weather is getting cooler. I will be messaging you this weekend if your child is without extra clothes. Unfortunately, the nurse does not have extra clothes available for Pre-K or K. ***

What we are doing each week in Heggerty Phonemic Awareness

Rhyme Repetition (Soon moving on to rhyme Recognition)

Isolate of Initial Consonant Sounds

Blending of Compound Words

Final Phoneme Isolation: Focused Sounds

Segmenting Compound Words

Alphabet Knowledge: Singing the ABC's and Using Alphabet Cards

Sentence Repetition and Counting Words in the sentence.

***There are fun hand movements in Heggerty that keep the learning fun and the students engaged.

Questions for Parents:

Ask your child about the little red house, with no doors or windows, and has a star inside?

Ask what happened when we poured the liquid vinegar into our apple volcanoes that we filled with baking soda?