Language Group - Week of October 17, 2016

Fall/Harvest Theme

This week in Language Group, we talked about the fall, specifically about apples.  We read the book “Apple Farmer Annie” by Monica Wellington.  In this book an apple farmer named Annie shows us her apple farm in the fall.  She tells us she picks them, sorts them by color, and uses them to make different things (apple cider, applesauce, muffins, cakes, and pies).  “She saves the most beautiful ones of all to sell fresh at the market.”  She loads her truck, drives to the farmers market and sets up her stand.  She has lots of customers and sells all her apples.  Annie is very tired when her day is over.

For our activity, we had a large paper tree with different colored and sized apples.  Each child was asked which apple they wanted to place on the tree, or directed to find a particular apple and place it on the tree (next to another red apple, at the top of the tree, etc.) When the tree was full of apples, the children took turns picking one, naming the color and sorting it by its color.

This activity worked on:

1. attending
2. turn-taking
3. color concept (red, green, yellow)
4. size concept (big, little/small)
5. superlative /-est/ (biggest, smallest)
6. sorting by color
7. following directions (i.e.: find a big green apple)

Activities you can do at home include:

1. Stuff socks (red, green and yellow ones if you have them) and use them as apples with this poem.  Decide how many you want to use (counting one to five) and have your child count how many fell.  Take turns being the tree and allow the other person to shake “the tree.”

Way up high in the apple tree 
5 big apples smiled at me 
I shook that tree as hard as I could
And down came the apples 
M-mm they were good!

2. Have your child help you sort the laundry by color (sort all the socks by color).
3. Place items out and have your child find the biggest and the smallest (your shirt and your child’s shirt).
4. Give your child directions including size and color (i.e.: get the big cookie, get the red crayon).

Miss Linda and Miss Diane