A is for Apple Unit

Ivan's first day of preschool co-op

I think I mentioned that Ivan (and consequentially I) joined a preschool co-op this year with several other kids (and their moms) in our ward. Wednesday was his first day. Ever since we heard about the co-op, I have felt like this was a good idea for Ivan. I feel like he needs something that is his very own. Something that he gets to do without his brother and sister. This co-op seems like the perfect thing, I'm still involved because I teach every fifth week or so, but he gets to go have wonderful adventures with kids his own age once a week for an hour and a half. I was a little bit worried that he would be shy and timid, or that he wouldn't want to stay there by himself. But he did fantastic, and he was so excited about it. After we picked him up, as we were walking home, I said to him, "Tell me all about preschool, did you have fun?" He replied, "I had fun, but I'm not going to tell you everything about it because you weren't there." Stab my mother's heart. But throughout the rest of the day he'd tell me little bits and pieces at random times (not if I asked though), so I think I've figured out mostly how his day went. They talked about letter A, had show-and-tell, played airplane tag (this was Ivan's favorite part, he came home and taught Linc and Adelia how to play, and they played all afternoon), had a snack, got to count A's they found around the room, colored an alligator, wrote their name, sang songs, and played outside.


On purpose, I set up our home school preschool that we do throughout the rest of the week, to match up with the letter Ivan was learning about in his co-op. So we've been talking about A all week as well. I chose to do a unit on apples. The story I picked to go with our unit was Johnny Appleseed A Poem by Reeve Lindbergh. The poem is cute, and rimes, but what I really like are the pictures. They are fun, and have little animals all over the place that the kids love to look for while I'm reading.

Because I'm also home schooling Lincoln's Kindergarten, my preschool time has to be severally limited to one activity a day. So we read the book and then do an activity and call it good. I gear the activities towards Ivan, but the other two are allowed to participate if they want to, and they usually choose to.

 
The first day we made letter A apples our of cardstock. I had all the pieces cut out before hand, so all the kids had to do was glue it together. My goal this time around, is to make a picture of the letter every time we do one, and then hang them on Ivan's closet door as we go, so that he can see how his alphabet is progressing.

The second day we played a math game. Each player gets a place mat that has ten apples on it. Each apple has a number 1-10. In my hand I hold 10 apple shaped cards. The person who is it draws an apple card from me, then matches it to the number on their place mat. Once they match it correctly, they get to pick out the corresponding number of fishy crackers (or whatever treat you choose) and place them on the number card. Once all the cards run out, everyone gets to eat their crackers, and you shuffle the cards and start over. It's pretty simple, but my kids LOVED it.

On the third day we made Wassail, which is one of my most favorite parts of fall. We usually don't make it until Halloween, but this apple unit gave me a good excuse. Here's the recipe:

Wassail
6 cups cranberry juice
24 cup apple cider (not juice, cider)
6-8 cinnamon sticks
1 Tbsp whole cloves

Pour cranberry juice into large pan. Pour in cider. Add in cinnamon sticks and cloves. (You can wrap them in a cheese cloth if you want, or just scoop them our with a slotted spoon at the end.) Bring everything to a boil. Simmer for 25-30 minutes. Serve. Store in a pitcher in refrigerator and reheat when needed.

On the fourth day we did apple lacing cards, which I made by drawing an apple onto a piece of card stock, coloring it, cutting it out, laminating it, and punching wholes around the edges. I used red yarn as the string. Super easy, very entertaining, and they'll be good for sacrament meeting later.

For day five we made a paper plate apple art project by cutting off the sides of a paper plate and painting the top and bottom red, and drawing seeds in the middle. Use the sides you cut off to make the leaf and the stem, and either color or paint them green and brown. I did have my kids do the cutting on this part to help with the fine motor skills. It's not a very hard cut. Then, to throw a little science into the mix, we used my plate to label all the parts of the apple, stem, leaf, skin, flesh, core, and seeds. And briefly talked about how if you planted an apple seed, it would eventually grow into an apple tree.

I thought our preschool was pretty successful this week. Next week is letter B and we're doing boats! Also the co-op is at my house...so Ivan will be able to tell me everything about it, because I'll be there! ;)