One of my most favorite preschool units that I've ever done is A is for Apple. I've done it for a few years now, and have been able to tweak it here and there, and narrow it down to the activities that I really love. The kids always seem to have a good time with it too. I usually base my unit studies around a theme (such as apples) and have a story to go with. The story I picked to go with our apple unit was Johnny Appleseed A Poem by Reeve Lindbergh. The poem is cute, and rhymes, 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 a first grader and a kindergartener, 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 my preschooler, 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 out 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 the closet door as we go, so that the kids can see how their alphabet is progressing.
The second day we played a math game. Each player gets a placemat 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 placemat. 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.
Download the template here. You’ll want to print 2. One for the board, and one for the cards.
On the third day we made Wassail. We usually only make it at 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 sticking in the diaper bag later, when we're at the doctor's office, or church.
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.
Stay tuned for a B is for Boat themed unit.
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