Apple Centers for Kindergarten

Incorporating the apple theme into your kindergarten literacy and math centers is a piece of cake (or pie) with these September Math and Literacy Centers for Kindergarten.

These apple themed centers are great for September and the beginning of fall. This packet includes 13 literacy centers and 13 math centers for a total of 26 centers – all with a fun apple theme!

These centers were made just for Kindergarten. Which means you'll find the activities to be hands-on, developmentally appropriate, and relevant to the skills your students are working on.

Inside you'll find a table of contents that you can click and easily access the activity you need. A recording sheet is included for every activity to hold students accountable for their work. Each activity also comes with a kid-friendly “I Can” poster to promote independence.

You'll also find a follow-up print-and-go activities/worksheets to reinforce the skills covered in the center – for every single center.

No Prep Pages for Every Center:

Here's an example of the no prep pages included with each center.

Apple Themed Printables: Letter Freebie

And now for a freebie. I put together an apple themed activity and wanted to share it with you. Since fall in Kindergarten using means learning letters and sounds, what better way to learn than with free apple themed printables!

To prepare this free apple letter mat activity, simply print and laminate the activity mats. Students will need a set of A-Z magnetic letters for this activity.

This activity is perfect for a quick literacy center, morning tub, or a fast finisher activity.

Students select a magnetic letter and identify the letter name or letter sound. They will find a matching apple and place the magnetic letter on top. They will continue until all of the apples have been covered.

You could also use this activity in a small group adult-led station. Simply call out a letter or make a letter sound and have students use a mini eraser or plastic math cube to cover the corresponding letter or picture.

You can download the free apple themed printables here. I hope your students have a blast with these!

Apple Read Alouds

There's no better way to engage your students during apple week than with apple-themed read alouds that grab their attention and get them hooked on learning about apples.

Read alouds are a way to connect with your students and help foster a love for reading. It's a time to come together, relax, listen to a story, and have a great discussion about the story. Students will also gain the benefit of hearing from a fluent, expressive reader.

Some of my all-time favorite books to read during your apple week activities are:

• Annie the Apple Pie Fairy
• The Biggest Apple Ever
• Apples
• Apple Farmer Annie
• Johnny Appleseed
• Apples for Everyone
• Apples A to Z
• Ten Apples Up on Top! 

Apple Pie in a Cup Snack

You've probably heard of teachers making crockpot applesauce with their students. Feel free to switch it up this year and have some delicious fun with this apple week snack called Apple Pie in a Cup.

This is such an easy recipe and there is no baking required! Now that is MY kind of recipe. Your students will LOVE this treat.

All you need are: graham crackers, apple pie filling, whipped cream, and cinnamon. For the complete recipe, a corresponding sequencing freebie, and a step-by-step video, check out this blog post.

While students eat their snacks, it's a great time to read the book, Amelia Bedelia's First Apple Pie.

Apple Taste Test Investigation

Your apple week activities wouldn't be complete without an apple taste test investigation. Anytime students can have a snack at school, they're automatically more excited. And lucky for you, it just so happens to be healthy too! #teacherwin

Prepping for the apple taste testing

To prepare for the apple taste testing, you can pre-cut your apples using an apple cutter and store them in sealed containers with a little bit of lemon juice over the top to prevent them from browning.

This saves you from having to cut all of the apples using sharp utensils while your students wait for you to start the lesson.

Write the name of each apple on a sticky note and place it on the outside of the container so you know which is which.

Completing the apple taste testing

To complete your apple taste test investigation, give students a small paper plate with one slice of each apple. Before tasting, have students predict what each apple will taste like and observe the color and texture of the apples.

Have students taste test red, green, and yellow apples and share their thoughts about what each apple tastes like.

Chances are, you'll have students who have never tried a yellow and/or green apple, so it's a great way to give students the opportunity to try something new.

After the taste test, discuss the taste of each apple using descriptive words such as sweet, sour, tart, bitter, etc.

You can record these adjectives on the whiteboard and even create a Venn diagram to compare and contrast the different types of apples.

Apple taste test graphing

If you'd like to take the apple taste test investigation a step further, you can create a class graph to show what type of apple each student liked best.

You can draw a large, basic bar graph on the whiteboard and label the bottom of each column with the different types of apples tasted. Students can take turns coming up to the whiteboard and writing their names in a space above their favorite apple.

They can also mark their spot by using die-cut apples in different colors and writing their name on them to show what they choose.

After each child has completed the graph, count how many students chose each color. You can also discuss which apple had the most and least votes.

You can download an apple graph freebie by clicking here so your students can follow along and complete their own individual graphs.

Apple Themed Crafts

Brighten up the halls or your classroom with these apple-themed crafts!

This set of monthly crafts includes 12 beginning-of-the-year crafts (4 math, 4 phonics, and 4 writing crafts) for students to put together.

The included crafts are EASY to put together since they were designed specifically for little hands to be able to cut and assemble (dotted cut-out lines, large pieces, etc.).

These August and September crafts are perfect for reinforcing skills like letter recognition, numbers to 5, 2D shapes, name building, and All About Me.

Ready to get crafty with your students? You will love how easy and adorable these apple-themed crafts are!

Apple Writing Activities

Incorporating apple week activities into your writing block is a great way to introduce students to new vocabulary words and incorporate the theme of apples into their writing.

Using apple-themed writing centers is a great way to encourage students to write using apple vocabulary words and descriptive words and illustrations.

These apple writing centers will help students learn about the different parts of an apple and how apples grow, and give students an opportunity to learn about all of the different ways apples can be used and eaten.

Apple Math and Literacy Centers

While apple week may be a ton of fun, there's still work to do and skills to practice. However, with apple math and literacy centers, you can be sure your students will have a blast and not even realize they're learning.

With 26 centers, your students will be able to practice skills such as letter recognition, beginning sounds, uppercase and lowercase matching, one-to-one correspondence, counting, ten-frames, number order, and more.

Use them during your apple week activities and all throughout the fall for a ton of hands-on, meaningful math and literacy practice. Learning has never been as sweet as with these apple-themed centers for kindergarten.

For a little more apple-themed math practice, grab this apple math game freebie by clicking here.

I hope these apple week activities for kindergarten have inspired you to try something new with your students this year.

By incorporating seasonal, themed units like apple week, you give your students the opportunity to learn about the world around them in a way they may have never done before.

It's truly a magical learning experience for students and I can't wait to hear about your apple week activities. Share what's on your apple week agenda in the comments below.

Step by Step Directions:

You'll start with the graham crackers. Each Apple Pie in a Cup needs one to two graham crackers, depending on the size of the cup. If you're doing this with a small group of students, you can put the graham cracker in a zip top bag and have the students crush it. Why not sneak in a little fine motor work, right? 

For a whole group activity, you can either pre-crush the graham crackers or put several in a gallon size zip top bag and let students take turns crushing the graham crackers. Once the graham crackers are in small pieces, you'll want to put a generous scoop or two on the bottom of the cup. If you're in a real hurry, they sell pre-crushed graham crackers by the pie crusts at the grocery store.

This graham cracker layer is the base or crust for the apple pie in a cup.

For the next step to make the apple pie in a cup, you'll add the apple pie goodness. You can use apple pie filling or diced apples. I used a 21oz can of apple pie filling. You can warm the apple pie filling up in a crock pot or microwave – but that is definitely not necessary. I put about two heaping scoops on top of the graham cracker crust. Depending on the size of your scoop, you can make about 6-8 pies per can of pie filling. 

Next you'll add some whipped cream and top it off with a sprinkle of cinnamon or cinnamon sugar. Do you need the sprinkle of cinnamon? No, but I think it looks prettier and it makes the whipped cream taste yummy!

Supply students with a spoon and let them dive in!

Sequencing Freebie:

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, I like to read Amelia Bedelia's First Apple Pie while the students enjoy their snack. If you're wanting to turn this into a “snack-tivity”, I created a recording sheet to practice sequencing.

Students cut apart the pictures and put the ingredients in order. They also can color the faces to show their feelings about how the snack tasted.

Click here to download the free recording sheet. If your class has finished apple week, be sure to pin one of these images to remind you for next year!

Students independently roll their set of dot cubes, count the number, and make that number on their ten frame. Students then compare their ten frame with their partners to see which number is greater. The student with the greater number takes one snap cube.They continue to play until one player has 10 snap cubes (or however many snap cubes you decide to use). Use less snap cubes as the target if you have less time.

I thought this would be such a fun idea for apple week (or even a fall party for adults). There was an apple slicer to quickly cut the apples, there was warm caramel in the crock pot, and toppings. Lots of topping. I didn't get a picture of all of the toppings, but they had Oreo cookie crumbles, sprinkles, crushed M&M's, mini marshmallows, graham cracker crumbles, and mini chocolate chips.They also had a variety of nut items, but I'd definitely leave those out if you were doing this in the classroom. Let me tell you, caramel apples with some Oreo crumbles sprinkled on top are delicious!!

During this time of year we are working hard on letter recognition and letter sounds for both uppercase and lowercase letters. We also work on grasping a strong foundation of numbers to 10. I found these foam leaf cut outs at the craft store and thought they would make for some fun and festive center activities.Can't find leaf cut outs? No worries! You can use my affiliate link to make your own leaves with this leaf punch from Amazon.

Here's a little peak at the 6 Pack Centers for Fall. Each 6 Pack Centers packet includes 3 math and 3 literacy activities with “I Can” visual directions and recording sheets.Also included is a no-prep practice page to follow up each activity. You can use the practice page for homework, morning work, small group practice, as another recording sheet.

Students practice making five with this easy fall centers for Kindergarten activity. You can use snap cubes or foam leaves (like the ones pictured at the top of this blog post) to make five.Also included is a blank five frame page so you can use it for small group practice.

Thanks for reading along as I share some easy fall centers for Kindergarten!{and I hope you LOVE the festive freebies too!)

Monster Themed Read-Alouds

As Kindergarten teachers, we know that read alouds are such an important part of our classroom schedules. I especially love read alouds at the beginning of the year. It's a {mostly} calm time, where kids can just sit, relax, and listen.

Asking questions about the read aloud is a great way to assess student knowledge and have conversations that help build student relationships.

Below are some ideas for your monster theme read alouds.

Monsters Love Colors

Go to School, Little Monster

Five Little Monsters Went to School

Monster School

Glad Monster, Sad Monster

Monsters Love School

Monstergarten

The Monster Who Lost His Mean

If You're a Monster and You Know It

Monster Mess!

Monster Themed Centers

Monster Alphabet:

Monster Sounds:

You can have students use clothes pins to clip the sound before they color – sneaking in a little fine motor practice too.

Monster Match Up:

Monster Numbers:

Monster Math:

See it on TpT

Students use the spinner to choose a picture. Then, they find the picture on the recording sheet that matches and fill in the missing number. This activity is perfect for practicing numbers order to 5.

Counting Practice