Fun with Ten Apples

Sometimes I feel a little...unfocused...with regards to this blog.  I mean, I've got God stuff, family stuff, arts-n-crafts-for-preschoolers stuff, random tips, recipes, money-saving stuff...who knows how it all ties together.  But that's my life.  Unfocused.  So why should my blog be any different?

Anyway, it's fall, which means harvest time, and around here, harvest time means lots of apples and apple treats.  Today I just wanted to share this fun learning activity, inspired by Making Learning Fun, with you. 

I recently read Ten Apples Up On Top, by Theo LeSieg, for the first time (well, for the first time I can remember--it's entirely possible that I had read it or it had been read to me at some point in the past).  For those of you who don't know, Theo LeSieg was a pen name for Theodor Geisel.  Theodor Geisel had another pen name: Dr. Seuss.

It's not my favorite of Mr. Geisel's works, but it's a cute story, and the kids enjoyed it, especially what we like to call the "Ka-blooey" page, when the three friends, each with 10 apples balanced on their heads, smack into a huge wagon-load of apples and apples fly e v e r y w h e r e.  Fun, fun.  You can request it from your local library, or buy it on Amazon (click here).

So first we read the book, and the kids tried to balance apples on their heads.  By the end of the story, they were getting pretty good at balancing one apple, but they decided they didn't want to try two :)

I had previously printed out apples, numbered 1 through 10, from the Making Learning Fun website, and the kids started cutting those out, while I printed out close-ups of the kids' faces.  Notice the apple on the table for inspiration :)

 Next, I had them glue the pictures of themselves at the bottom of a (very large*) piece of paper, and then they glued the apples up on top, in numerical order.  I also propped the book open on the table for them to look at.

Such a great activity for practicing fine motor skills and number recognition, as well as counting forwards and backwards.  The kids finished their projects by gluing a copy of the book's cover to their papers and I wrote "Ten Apples Up On Top of (Bubby or Pal, but I used their real names)" across the top.

I wanted this activity to be about number recognition and sequencing, so  I used the printed apples with numbers on them, but you could very easily just use apples, halved vertically, and paint, to print the 10 apples on the paper.  You could even number them after they're dry.  Making Learning Fun also provided a printable boy head and girl head that you could use, but I thought it would be fun for the kids to use pictures of themselves.

Good times.  I hope this post has inspired you to enjoy some apple-themed crafts and/or treats in the coming weeks.  Leave a comment to let me know what you come up with :)

* If you don't have paper that's large enough, just keep taping smaller sheets of paper end to end until it's long enough.