a is for apple - a Preschool Lesson Plan

We are starting our more "formal" home preschool this week.
Most of what little children learn is learned as you go about the day,
teaching things in an organic manner.
Our more structured learning is to focus on
early reading & writing skills,
listening quietly to a teacher while sitting still,
& craft time.


This week we begin with A is for Apple.


Here's my lesson plan.


When I cut out the craft foam
for the abc craft card,
(found here at Totally Tots)
I used a template for myself, 
roughly following a printed letter "a" 
in Century Gothic font, 
at text size 350.
I am not very good at free-handing 
with the scissors in craft foam!
I realized as I was cutting, 
that this is not a preschool craft. 
I was going to have 
them glue the pieces. 
But, decided to do it myself 
& just give the flashcard to the kids.












Phonic Sounds & Writing
Most of the lesson I will focus on the short sound for the letter "a".
We will also focus on the lower case.
We will do a brief introduction of capital "A".
And, talk briefly about the long sound for "a" (as in acorn).


You can find letter tracing worksheets to practice penmanship at this link.


I wrote words up on the board that contained the letter "a".
The kids learned recognition of the letter in the context of various words.
Here's a few.

• banana
• bat
• cap
• acorn
• cat
• alligator
• hat 
• pan
• ant
• airplane

The kids looked for the hidden letter "a" on this picture I drew.

I am not very good at drawing.
But, you have my permission to use the picture for your own kids, if you want!


We're singing this clever song in our class time -
A-P-P-L-E {to the tune of B-I-N-G-O}.



Kitchen
We made the Apple Shake Ups from this lesson plan.
We learned about apple varieties & did a sampling.

We drank Apple Cider & snacked on paired some 

cheeses & oatmeal cookies with our apple shakeups.

History
Johnny Appleseed's (John Chapman) birthday is coming up this week - Sept. 26th.
For a little history lesson, we'll read about him.




Art
Our craft was stamping apples to make cool placemats.
Just slice apples in half & dip in paint.
Stamp them onto your construction paper.

If you want to, you can add stems & 
leaves using finger painting or paint brushes.
After they are dry, cover in laminate 
so your child can use the placemat.


Bible
We are talking about how 
God keeps His children as 
the "apple of His eye".
He loves us.  
We are his treasure.  
We are His delight.
His loving gaze is on us.
He doesn't let us out of His sight.

Deuteronomy 32:10

"He found him in a desert land, 

And in the howling waste of a wilderness;

He encircled him, 

He cared for him,

He guarded him as 

the apple of His eye."

Psalm 17:8

"Keep me as the apple of the eye;

Hide me in the shadow of Your wings,"

As His children, we are told to keep His Words to us (the Bible)
as the treasure of our heart & the apple of our eye; 
the focus of our attention should be on Him & His Word.
We should keep it always before us.

Proverbs 7:2

"Keep my commandments & live,

And my teaching as the apple of your eye."

Geography
Apple trees are native to Southwestern & Central Asia; 
The region between the Black & Caspian Seas.
We found it on our map.  


Activity

We filled a bin with water & apples.  Will the apples float or fall?
They float!  25% of their volume is made up of water.
We bobbed for apples.  

Did you know that as early as 40 A.D., they were bobbing for apples in Great Britain?  

The young unmarried girls would play.  They believed that the first girl 

to bite an apple & bring it out of the water, would be the first one married that year.

Math
We tried to guess at how many seeds are in an apple.
Then we cut it open & looked at it & gave another estimation.
Then we actually counted to seeds to see how many were really in there.


Science
For a little exploring, we cut open some apple seeds 
& examined them under a magnifying glass.


We looked at photos of the different seasons of the apple tree.

All of the above are Apple Orchards of the Corralitos Valley

And, we are reading books as shared on my previous post.