Apple Crazy

I know a fruit that grows on trees

and apple is it’s name-o

A P P L E
A P P L E

A P P L E

And apple  is its name –o

This was a fun song that we did today. We charted the song . It is hanging up in the room so the kiddos can go sing it whenever they want.  They sound cute singing it but …. even more wonderful is we are presenting more letters  ( A , P L and E) that they can become familiar with.

Apples and Handwashing:

We put a clean apple slice in one jar. We passed another apple slice around the class as we came in from recess with dirty hands. We will observe  the two jars to see what happens.

In our room we have the loft where a child can go to be alone.   We have the cube that is used as a calm down center.   Today I introduced the word ” silence.”  I read on a blog about a lady that used this in her classrooom and thought it sounded worth the effort.  Some days here are really calm and might even be considered quiet with this many children in here.  Some days, the noise is crazy.  Just today I looked at Dallas and said ” what is that noise?”   There was a loud ringing in my ears. She said ” That is why I walked down the stairs. That is one of our friends and he is pushing a high note on the key board and just holding it there.”  Well… it isnt hurting anyone and it is wonderful that he is exploring sound  so there’s no reason to ask him to quit.  But there are times when we all just need to silence the noises in our world and rest our head.  The silence center was quite popular today.  There is a battery operated candle , a timer and the word silence in a frame.  We talked about what silence is. It isnt just being quiet it is no noise.  I might add some head phones to muffle classroom noises there as well.  You might try having one at home.  Taking the time to be silent would probably be healthier and advantageous for all of us.

I put materials on the table to allow the kids to make red apples or apple trees.  They made ninja headbands !  Well.. everything doesnt have to go by my plan for learning to take place.  They were still cutting. They were still gluing. They were still making the choice to stop active place and come sit and craft.  They were using their imaginations.  And I guess I would have to admit that ninja headbands are a lot more fun that apples.

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As a stem activity I challenged the kids to build a tower as tall as they could with the apple balanced on top!  STEM is incorporating science , technology, engineering and math into your daily curriculum.  In this activity they used engineering and math.  They had to decide how to build the tower to hold the apple.  They first got 6 blocks high and then I asked them to add more more… how many will that be ?  7 !!