Toddler Tuesday: Picking Apple Books

Last week, it was 100 degrees here. It is September.I was ready for fall, brisk mornings, pumpkin bread, scarfs, and apple picking. So, I had this brilliant idea to do a fall theme with Tyson in hope of ushering in cooler temperatures. And you know what? It worked!!! Monday morning equaled jacket weather!!! We began our apple unit with this wonderful book, Ten Red Apples by Pat Hutchins.
Ten Red Apples by Pat Hutchins is the story of a farmer who is ready to pick his 10 beautiful apples until... horse came and ate one, cow came and ate one, donkey came and ate one... and on and on. The poor farmer and his wife were left with no apples for their pie until... they spotted another apple tree.
This book is full of elements of great early literacy: counting backwards, animal names, animal sounds, rhyme, alliteration, and repetition are all found in this treasure. And a cool fun fact I found when reading a review of this book? The hen in this book is Rosie from Pat Hutchins' Rosie's Walk. Cool?

I used my brand new giant felt board that I made from leftover sign boards from my husband's work. Thank you, Greg! I made an apple tree with 10 apples and as we read this book we took the apples off the tree. I left it out for Tyson to play with throughout the week. I tried to incorporate words like, "Tyson is taking the apples off the tree. Tyson is putting the apples on the tree. Tyson is eating the apples... wait!!!!"

Since this book used farm animals, we also played with our puppets. We let them eat apples off the tree. We also sang "Old MacDonald had a Farm" while using our puppets.

Then we create a handprint apple tree. Tyson loves art so I think this was his favorite thing! Except for painting and stamping his own arm/handprint, he did the rest independently. He was very proud of it and wanted to show Daddy as soon as Daddy got home. (Even though the paint was still wet!)

We did several other activities from this unit at Structured Play.

We also enjoyed these apple books

Dappled Apples by Jan Carr


 10 Apples up on Top by Dr. Seuss



 Apple Countdown by Joan Holub

All this apple play is making me want a nice crisp apple! Hopefully it will make the boys want to chomp into the healthy fruit as well. Happy apple reading and eating!