Pumpkins and Apples and Leaves! Oh my!

Aah! Fall is here...the leaves are changing, the air is crisp. It's my favorite season! As soon as the first leaf falls, I'm ready for some hot apple cider and pumpkin pie! My kids have really been enjoying the season, too! We've been having a blast studying pumpkins, apples, and leaves in kindergarten!

Pumpkins

We observed the outside and inside of a pumpkin. We wrote words to describe the pumpkin and made a pumpkin diagram. Then we each got our own mini-pumpkin and wrote nonfiction books about our pumpkins in writing workshop.

Apples

We studied apples and came up with lots of words to describe our apples. Then we made a diagram of an apple. We used these charts to help us with our writing during writing workshop.

 We observed lots of different apples, read books about apples, and wrote nonfiction books about apples in writing workshop! We practiced labeling and writing pattern sentences.

 

We turned the letter A into an apple at the art center!

We tasted different apples and graphed our favorites. Red had the most votes and yellow had the least!

Finally, we read Ten Apples Up On Top and modeled different combinations of 10 on our giant ten frame. Then we each made a different combination of apples on top of our heads!

Leaves

We had so much fun being scientists and observing leaves! We also read books about leaves and then wrote our own nonfiction books about our leaves during writing workshop. We practiced adding details to our drawings and writing labels.

I made some resources to keep in the children's writing folders during our leaf writing. I included a mini word wall and diagram. You can download the leaf resources HERE.

We also made leaf rubbings! (I didn't get a photo of those yet.)

Math Centers

 Race to Ten - Roll the die and put the correct number of leaves on the ten frame. First to reach 10 wins! I found the plastic leaves in the Target Dollar Spot!
Click here for the free Race to Ten template.

Stacking Apples - Roll the die, stack the cubes, and place them on the correct numeral.

More or Less - We roll the die and add leaves to our tree. Then we figure out who has more and who has less. Click here for the More or Less work mats. This activity was inspired by Mrs. Lee! 

Race to 10 - We roll the die and put the correct number of spiders in our "ten frame." The ten frames are pumpkin ice cube trays from Dollar Tree! 

Race to Trace - Roll the cube and trace the correct number.
 

Spider Spin & Count - Spin the spinner, count the spiders using the ten frame, then draw and write the amount on the sheet.

Five Frame Spin & Color - spin the spinner, say the number, color in the correct apple.

Spider Facts - We practiced the number 8 by making spiders with 8 eyes and 8 legs!

Here is the writing template for the Spider Facts activity.

Literacy Centers

Syllable Sort & Stamp - we sort pictures by syllables, then stamp the syllables with a dot marker.

 Trace Stamp Write - We pick an apple, then trace, stamp, and write the word.

Pumpkin Letter Hunt - We go fishing for letters inside the pumpkin, then say the letter and color in the matching letter on our sheet.

Roll a Word - Roll the cube, read the word, write it on the graph.

And just for fun, we turned paper plates into Jack-O-Lanterns!

  

 

Most of these math and literacy center activities are included in my Fall Centers Pack!

And be sure to check out these FREEBIES if you don't already have them! I know it's late for these now, but you might want them for next year!

P.S. I recently updated my fall pack to include a couple of new activities, but I had a hard drive mishap this week! My drive died and I haven't backed it up in a few months (not smart)! So, it's at the repair shop now and I'm hoping they can recover most of the data. It's going to cost a ton, but my entire life is on that drive! Once I get it back, I will upload the updated version of the pack! 

HAPPY FALL! 

Seuss-tastic Fun!

Hey everyone! Will you be celebrating Dr. Seuss' birthday with your class this week? Here's a collection of some of the Seuss activities and crafts I've done in the past with my kiddies. This is one of my favorite weeks of the school year and the kids always have a blast! I hope you all have a Seuss-tastic week! ;)

Cat in the Hat

We read the Cat in the Hat and made paper plate cats.

 This cute hundred chart idea came from Marlana at Lil Country Kindergarten. I called out the numbers and the kids had to find and color them to reveal the hidden picture! They loved it!

And of course, we made our own Cat in the Hat hats! (I had them color the hats but next time I would have them use paint so the color is more vibrant).

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish

We followed up this story with a goldfish sorting and graphing activity. I gave each student a handful of colorful goldfish crackers to work with. Click here for the Goldfish Graph.

Green Eggs & Ham

We read Green Eggs & Ham, then tasted green eggs and did some more graphing! Most of the kids were brave enough to try the eggs and they loved them!

Bartholomew and the Oobleck

 This was a class favorite! After reading the story, we made Oobleck and did a sink and float experiment. Click here to get the sheet for the Oobleck Experiment. 

 

Fox in Socks

We wore silly socks on Fox in Socks Friday and practiced sorting and counting.

And to Think That I Saw it on Mulberry Street

 We used this book to inspire our own class book. The kids had fun imagining some crazy things that could happen on our street!