How to Make an Apple Pie (FIAR)

A little fun with lots of learning-1st try at apple bopping 

So we have finished our first week of homeschool and my first book of Five in a Row: How to Make an Apple Pie and Travel the World by Marjorie Priceman. It is a cute book about a girl who travels the world to get the ingredients to make apple pie. So here is our row:

Math:

Various farm theme math sheets for cheap Grade 1 workbooks 

3 part apple math cards from 1st Grade Parade 

Measuring Trees printable from 2 Teaching Mommies

Odd & Even Apple Trees from 1st Grade Parade

Ripe Math was also a printable from 1st Grade Parade. 

We asked 25 people what their favorite type of fruit pie is and then made a pie graph. We also did a lot of introduction to fractions as well. 

Social Studies:

This idea came from Delightful Learning. We took the manipulatives from our sensory bin (you can see that here) and placed them on our world map.

Paper Plate Globe from Mrs. T's First Grade 

We did all the maps from the How to Make an Apple Pie lapbook from homeschoolshare and the Vermont coloring sheet from Crayola

We love this song on Youtube to teach the names of the continents

We also studied about Johnny Appleseed (John Chapman). What a truly amazing American. Here "A" is writing about how he would throw a party for Johnny Appleseed. He had to know some of his likes to answer the questions. 

We also filled out this Look Who is Famous informational sheet. I think we will use this sheet for all amazing people we learn about. You can find it at homeschool creations.

Literacy:

This is our poetry journal which I will do a complete post about in awhile. He highlights high frequency words and illustrates it. Here is with apple paint prints. 

Our apple picking sight word game. I took the idea of my popcorn game and wrote our high frequency words on apple prints and wrote the word Rot for the word to send the apples back. Check out my popcorn post on how to play.

We had a vocabulary word each day that he wrote on apples and defined: harvest, acquaintance, crop, coax 

I love this KWL chart from 1st Grade Parade

Sequence Cards from Fiarcircle

We did a comparison of the All in Just One Cookie to How to Make an Apple Pie and mapped where the books got their ingredients. 

This isn't the best picture but he had to write an alternate ending to How to Make an Apple Pie. What if he really wanted vanilla ice-cream. What would he need and where would he go. The only thing extra is vanilla which in All for one Cookie we learn he could go to Madagascar if he wanted-s that is what he did.

Science:

He labeled the parts of an apple. This printable is from here 

I got this idea from Mrs. T's First Grade. I love the art component. 

This is a salt evaporation experiment that is in the Five in a Row Volume 1 book. The worksheet is part of the lapbook at HomeschoolShare.

This experiment I read on Pinterest and can't find the owner. Let me know if it is you. Take one clean apple slice and then drop another, rub your hands on it, etc and see which molds fastest. Great way to discuss germs!

Of course we made an apple pie! This is part science and math. We also made homemade applesauce because I love it! 

We also had to do an apple tasting. This is great to do for once for everyone. "A" loved the sour and hated the sweet-me complete opposite!

Art:

We studied still life paintings. Did you know that apples symbolized knowledge and in religious paintings it represented temptation? Here is our set up-we ran out of red apples so we had to imagine.

Here is"A's" finished piece using watercolor pastels. 

Here is my still life. I love how this is something we can learn to do together. We are both students. 

Other Resources we used:

Playing With Leaves

I finally got around to playing with the leaves from our leaf hunt last week. In hindsight, we should have worked with them earlier because they were pretty crispy and lost some of their bright colors. Oh well, learn from my mistake! I first wrote different colors on strips of paper, and had "A" sort the leaves into a bar graph formation. We then discussed which one had the most and the least. We added the color purple even though it isn't a normal color used to categorize fall leaves, but "A" insisted.

Then to get a little more into the Autumn leaves spirit of things "A" sang a song he learned in Kindergarten. Watch the video to hear a song set to the tune of London Bridge.

Then it was time to make leaf creations. I got easily frustrated by how dried out the leaves were. "A" stuck it out and made some pretty cool animals!

I made this guy. Don't know what he is

My butterfly ( I gave up after this one)

"A's" Leaf man

A Snail

A Giraffe

A Fish

Halloween Math

So I don't know if I should kiss or kill the person who introduced me to Pinterest. That has become a total addiction to me. Anyhoo, I saw a cute addition/subtraction idea using those little plastic pumpkin baskets and Popsicle sticks. I have had that thing pinned since August waiting for Halloween to roll around. Then I couldn't find the stinkin baskets anywhere! I tried Target, Fred Meyer, Craft Stores, Dollar Tree, but no luck. I had given up on the idea of doing this with "A" when I found them at Walgreens- of all places- for $2.99 for the package of eight. I almost hated writing numbers on the back with a Sharpie. It's funny because before "A" even knew what I was going to do he asked to write the numbers on the back so he could put them in order (he is working on number lines in school). I then wrote simple addition and subtraction equations on craft sticks (BAD IDEA). I used what I had but they kept tipping over the pumpkins. Stick with the popsicle sticks and you will not have a frustrated little kiddo. I wrote a lot of equations and it looked daunting to my fiveyear-old so they sat on the desk for days. I didn't push it  (for once). Last night he tried it and actually really loved it-except for the tipping over part.

Playing Card Addition/Subtraction

I am always trying to find easy, new ways to expose "A" to math. I was exploring The Lesson Plan Diva's blog and found a super simple idea picking two playing cards and using that for the numbers to add or subtract. She even has a free printable. Even though this was a relatively simple concept my son loved it. He didn't want to stop and he wrote different equations all over the paper. I guess this was a real winner we could do over and over again. In fact, he already asked me to print off another sheet.

Caterpillar Fractions

Another Pinterest idea: Introducing fractions by making a caterpillar out of poms. Choose three different colors and then have your child figure out how many of the poms is one color out of the total amount. You can download the worksheet from The First Grade Parade blog or make one yourself. It was actually a great way to introduce the idea and simple for my Kindergartner to understand.

Rapido

About a month ago I went to Goodwill and got some awesome finds in the game area. Not only did I get Melissa and Doug Opposites Puzzle and Number Dominoes for $1.99 (WHAT?!) but a game called Rapido. Weird I know but I was intrigued because it is made entirely of bamboo (all except a rope that is) which makes it completely natural. I also liked that it had an international feel to it. I finally got around to playing it and all though it is simple "A" loved it and it is excellent at teaching patterns.

 You put the rope which is already in a circular shape on the floor and then put wooden balls (think marble size) in a cup with no bottom or top. Then draw a pattern card. Lift up the cup and release the balls. The object is bamboo rod contraption grab the balls on your pattern card. First one to fill the rod wins, but it must match the pattern exactly. I picked up this game for $2.99 and I tell you it was a steal!

Gives you an idea of the box. Nice tape Huh! Remember it was well loved people.

A rubberband captures the ball (don't ask me how it works)

If you can't find the game it would be fun to make pattern cards and then find some type of marker (bear, food, transportation counters, marbles, etc.) and then using a hand claw or tongs race to see who could match the card the fastest. This would be easy to replicate. Hmmm...my little wheels are turning! What a fun way to teach pre-K math skills of sequencing and patterns.

Also on a side note you can find excellent children books at Goodwill too. The most expensive books are about $2 but I have found tons for only a 25 cents.