Hello Everyone:

"An apple a day keeps the doctor away" is a proverb from the ancient Romans who believed that apples had magical powers that could cure illness. Apples do promote good health, but are they magical? In an early childhood classroom they just might be!

Sort some apples by color. Did you find some that are red? Yellow? Green? Do they all taste alike? Guess we’ll have to sample them to find out. Which one tastes the best? Let’s count and see how many children like red or yellow or green. Which color had the most? The least? How many children chose red? Did more children choose yellow or green?

Cut an apple across the middle and what will you find inside? Young children will be excited to discover that there is a star. They will become even more excited as they explore and find seeds nestled within the star. How many seeds are there? Do other apples have the same number of seeds? Does a large apple have more seeds than a small apple?

Ask your students to predict and then explore to discover what will happen if you place a red apple in a tub of water. Will the same thing happen with a green apple? What about a yellow one? If you place an apple in a tub of water will it float stem up, stem down or sideways?

Your students can explore to see what will happen with a big apple, a small apple, a red apple, a yellow one...

During "Back to School" time and throughout the Fall months we stock bushels of apple stories in our stores. One of my favorites is Who Will Help?. This book has a Little Red Hen theme, but instead of baking bread, a little mouse asks his friends to help him make some applesauce. After sharing the story with your students have them make applesauce. Then sample some store bought applesauce and some of the batch that you made together. Make a graph to show who prefers store bought applesauce and who prefers homemade.

You can visually take your students around the world while you are reading How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World. As you read the story have your students place illustrations of the ingredients mentioned on a big map.

The Seasons of Arnold’s Apple Tree and I Am an Apple are my favorites about the life cycle of an apple. The many versions of Johnny Appleseed that we stock are fun to share with your students.

Peter and Ellen Allard sing "Five Green Apples" on their Sing It! Say It! Stamp It! Sway It! volume 1 CD. You may want each student to have a set of five apple cutouts to manipulate as they sing. Lyrics to this song and a sample of the song can be heard on the web site, www.peterandellen.com.

I used Trees Colorful Cutouts from Carson Dellosa to create this simple math game. First have your students place red pompoms (apples) on the apple stickers across the top of the work mat to practice one-to-one correspondence. Then they can count out those same red pompoms (apples) and place them on the tree. The number of apples on the tree should correspond to the numeral on the trunk of the tree.

The "Worm in Apple" puppet from Folkmanis Puppets can be used as a prop for the many apple songs and finger plays found in sources such as 1001 Rhymes & Finger plays from McGraw-Hill and Sing a Song of Seasons from Mailbox. You can enhance your apple theme with the hundreds of apple products we carry in the store. Look for stickers, accents, borders, bulletin board sets, computer paper and more. Later in the summer stop by The Learning Tree Store, Stoneham and peek at the apple charts and graphs that I’ll have displayed in the classroom.

For additional apple theme ideas visit www.thevirtualvine.com. Well, that’s about it for now. It’s time for my snack. Hmm, what shall I have? Apple pie, an apple, some applesauce...which one would you choose?

Enjoy! Carol

If you haven't had the opportunity to meet Carol Hartery in person or attend one of her workshops, you can tune in here!  Carol Hartery, educational consultant, shares teaching tips from her experience as a home daycare provider, kindergarten teacher and workshop presenter in "A Note from Carol".  This bi-weekly feature will provide you with new product information and great ideas for teaching language arts, math, science, music, art, social studies and more!  Carol Hartery presents a wide variety of workshops at The Learning Tree Store in Stoneham, MA.  Carol's workshops are always designed to show teachers how to work within the MA Frameworks and have fun at the same time.