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Apple *LOVE*

September 15 By Linda Kamp 12 Comments

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You might not know this about me, but I taught Kindergarten for for 5 years and first grade for 8 years before that.  Oh, how I miss being able to spend a long glorious fall teaching with all things apples!  My apple love was born as a child growing up in Kentucky climbing, building forts in, and snacking from the apple trees in our backyard! It was rekindled many years later living and teaching in a rural area literally surrounded by apple trees!  When the apples came ready, I had more than I knew what to do with! So…when life gives you apples…make apple butter! And I did, again and again and again! My crock pot ran day and night! I made apple butter at home and at school.  There’s nothing more comforting than the smell of apples and cinnamon, and my kids loved it!  I gave away apple butter to anyone who walked by my house!  Ok, anyone who even looked in the direction of my house! But I’m dreamily digressing…

Now that I teach second grade, I squeeze in as much apple fun as I can, but I have to tell you that it gets harder each year!  Our schedule is so tight with assessments, benchmark testing, mandatory computerized programs, new expectations, and adjusting to Common Core, all of which are extremely valuable to me, but it leaves little or no time for much else.  It’s that “much else” part that is one of the things I love so much about teaching!  So, my goal is always to find ways to teach the standards that also gives my kiddos a creative outlet, be it in their thinking or in their “doing”.
Here’s a little of our apple thinking and doing from the past few weeks.
Every year I have my students make these little apple cores to display their friendly letters.  In past years we’ve written thank you letters to our staff.  This year, after reading lots of different books about apples and Johnny Appleseed, my students wrote persuasive letters asking him questions and trying to persuade him to start wearing shoes!  This little friend is wondering if Johnny is a vegetarian!

 

 

We created a chart of apple words and their synonyms, then students wrote and illustrated them on  apple shapes.

 

 

We learned about collective nouns and and the meaning of “keeping your eyes peeled” for them all week.
When students spotted one they got to write it on a sticky note and add it to our chart.

 

In our reading groups we read about apple trees and discussed nonfiction text features and organization.

 

Still keeping our eyes peeled!
Our writing focus for the quarter is on writing an opinion.  My students love the Henry and Mudge books and next week we have Henry and Mudge and the Starry Night in our reading series. We talked about Henry and Mudge’s relationship and what qualities make a good pet. Students then wrote paragraphs giving their opinion on which animal they feel makes the best pet.  For some Friday afternoon fun and because one of my friends asked “What are we doing to celebrate Mr. Appleseed’s birthday?” :0)  We made these apple trees from my
Apple-icious September Writing Craftivities unit (the apple core writing activity is also included) and published and displayed them.

 

 

 

Here is our bulletin board display!

You can find the resources I used here:

TeachersPayTeachers          Teacher’s Notebook


Do you celebrate Johnny Appleseed Day?
Here’s a fun little writing craftivity that makes an adorable display.
There are two versions.  What’s in Johnny’s Knapsack? and
Who is Johnny Appleseed? This little ditty includes a 3-day lesson plan,
graphic organizers and lesson visuals.  both in color and black and white
student versions. I’ve also included 2 styles of handwriting lines
and patterned knapsack patterns that I copy right on to construction paper!

Happy apple season!

 

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    Filed Under: Writing Tagged With: anchor charts, apples, bulletin board, fall, writing

    Comments

    1. FirstGradeBlueSkies (Jennifer) says

      September 15 at 7:06 pm

      Your apple activities look GREAT!
      Jennifer
      First Grade Blue SKies

      Reply
    2. Confessions of a Teaching Junkie says

      September 15 at 8:25 pm

      Cute ideas Linda!

      Reply
    3. Linda says

      September 15 at 8:39 pm

      Thanks, Jennifer! I'm so glad you stopped by!

      Reply
    4. Linda says

      September 15 at 8:40 pm

      Hi Teresa! I'm glad you like them, how are you?

      Reply
    5. Heather A says

      September 15 at 10:51 pm

      I LOVE your bulletin board! VERY cute! I teach 2nd grade as well so I love finding new 2nd grade blogs I can stalk 🙂

      BTW – YOu might already have one, but I am hosting a giveaway on my blog. You could win a free, personal laminator! Come check it out if you get the chance! 🙂

      Heather
      Sensational Seconds

      Reply
    6. Lori Rosenberg says

      September 16 at 12:58 am

      What great ideas and activities! I love them all and am pinning them right now. Thanks so much for sharing your ideas!

      Ѽ Lori
      Teaching With Love and Laughter
      luvyorkies@gmail.com

      Reply
    7. Linda says

      September 16 at 1:43 am

      Hi Heather! Thanks for stopping by my blog so I could find yours! I love second grade blogs too!

      Reply
    8. Linda says

      September 16 at 1:58 am

      Hi Lori! Thanks so much!

      Reply
    9. Marilyn Gregory says

      September 16 at 6:40 pm

      I would love your apple butter recipe. I have always made apple sauce, but not apple butter. Sounds yummy.

      Reply
    10. Amanda Madden says

      September 19 at 1:21 am

      So glad you linked up with these wonderful ideas, Linda! I LOVE your collective nouns anchor chart! I may have to borrow that! 😉 It looks like you've found a great balance of fun and learning!

      Amanda
      Teaching Maddeness

      Reply
    11. Linda says

      September 19 at 1:32 am

      Hi Amanda! Thanks so much for stopping by and for hosting the linky party! I love to see what others are doing in their classrooms! As for the anchor chart…steal away! (You may want to add the definition of a collective noun though, I repeated it so many times while teaching that I forgot to write it on the chart!
      Have a great week!

      Reply
    12. Gladys says

      September 21 at 11:02 am

      Love your apple ideas!

      Reply

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