Preschool Story Time - Apple Season FUN!

Have you ever had just too much material for your story time? There is no shortage of apple story time help out there in the cyber space, but I went in another direction and just had a ball with this theme.  If you missed my Flannel Friday post last week about apples, check it out HERE.  I used all three flannel boards in this story time!

The Plan:

Apples Apples Apples by Nancy E. Wallace

Lesson one:  Read your books before you read them in story time.
Lesson two:  Read them out loud before you read them in story time.
Lesson three: Decide if you want to do the book only after lessons one and two, not before.

I got half way through this book and realized I missed lesson 2.  It was too long, too involved, and had too much information for my group.  I skipped lines and pages everywhere just to finish up. So on day two I did this book instead and it made a huge difference:

Apples Apples Everywhere by Robin Koontz

A much better choice for preschool and kindergarten with just enough information on Apples.  The worms in the apples were a great fact I hadn't seen before.

We next did my NEW Apple Sauce song...complete with felts.  It's to the tune of Peanut, Peanut Butter, Jelly:

Making Applesauce (by Miss Sue)

Making some applesauce, YUM! 
Making some applesauce, YUM!

First you take an apple and you peel it, you peel it.
First you take an apple and you peel it, you peel it.
(Chorus)
Then you take the apples an you chop 'em, you chop 'em.
Then you take the apples an you chop 'em, you chop 'em.
(Chorus)
Next you add some sugar and you cook 'em, you cook 'em.
Next you add some sugar and you cook 'em, you cook 'em.
(Chorus)
Then you take a masher and you smash 'em, you smash 'em.
Then you take a masher and you smash 'em, you smash 'em.
(Chorus)
Coooool it down! yeah....Coooool it down!
Then you take a spoon and you eat it, you eat it.
Then you take a spoon and you eat it, you eat it.
(Chorus)

This went over well because it was to a familiar tune.  Some of the kids picked it up really quickly!

Next up:

Little Apple Goat - Caroline Jayne Church

This darling little story about a goat who loves her orchard teaches the kids a little bit about what happens to seeds when they are scattered unwittingly by any creature.

After our halftime dance, we got back to the stories!  This time a flannel story I also created.  This is based on Katya Arnold's That Apple is Mine!  I used the story but not the book to retell the tale in my own fashion using my own felts:

This photo only shows part of the story.  For more on these felts and the story it goes with, click HERE. 

Our last story is my new favorite!! 

Ned's New Home by Kevin Tseng

Ned is in need of a new home!  Will he find one that suits him as well as his beloved apple?  I adore this book and will surely use it again and again.

Last felt set for today was my matching apples: 

I passed the apples out and together we tried to match the number with the number of seeds.  The younger ones had a little trouble but the older ones were quite excited to help out!  For more on where I got the idea for these and any of my felts this week, click This Flannel Friday Link, or search our labels for more Apple Felt and story ideas.

This was the craft idea I designed:

We talked about how to form numbers this week, using little poems for each number (Something like "around the tree and around the tree is how you make a number three!").  This was a basic apple shape on red paper and a basic circle on white.  I wrote the "I am ___" on the white paper and photo copied it. The seeds are raisins which is safer than using real seeds.  I'm sure the kids were sneaking a raisin or two!

Another successful story time this week!  I had lower numbers than usual this week, perhaps because the weather was so amazing, but the crowd was perfect.  Great participation, great atmosphere, and great fun had by all.  I'll tuck this one away for next year!