apples – Early Math Counts

Apple Ideas on Pinterest

Early Math Counts — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 11:00:54 +0000

I haven’t really gotten involved with Pinterest, but I know plenty of folks who have. The way I understand it is that you can choose pictures that speak to you in some way and then “pin” them on your board. You have to join to have a page but others can see public pages.

I found this page filled with photographs of Apple activities done in early childhood settings. I thought you might like to browse through it and find stimulating ideas for your program. Here is one sample from the page….

Making Apple Sauce

Early Math Counts — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 11:03:00 +0000

This is the first time we are talking about food activities as a means of promoting early math skills with children. I recently bumped into an old friend who is now a school social worker but who had been a teacher in a preschool for years. When I told her about my blog she thought long and hard about how she approached math in her former classroom and the only solid example she could come up with was cooking.

I appreciate that cooking is an obvious example of an activity that promotes all sorts of early math skills. I also love that, when done well, cooking supports communication skills, social skills, language and literacy skills, science skills, and you end up with something yummy to eat.

As we continue exploring apples during the month of September, we have to make apple sauce with the children. There are many ways and many recipes that can be used, but I prefer easy and nutritious, over complicated and sugary.

After washing hands, and having the children sit at the table with you, peel and cut the apples. First into halves and then into halves of halves (or fourths). Children can count the apple slices as you cut. You can also have them help get the seeds out and then you can fully core the apples.

Place all of the slices into a large stockpot and add a cup of water (just a little water at the bottom to increase the steam in the pot). Cover the pot and boil the apple slices down. Once they are pretty soft, take the pot off the stove and let cool.Now is the time to discuss how the apples have changed. You can use vocabulary like “solid” and “liquid” or “hard” and “soft”. The children will use their observation skills to report what they have noticed.

The children can take turns mashing the apples with a potato masher. Add nothing, as the season’s harvest will provide all the sweetness needed and the apple sauce will be terrific.

Serve the apple sauce. Ask how much they want or whether they want “a lot” or “a little”. Remember, every opportunity to use math language should not be missed.

More Apples Ideas

Early Math Counts — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 11:00:41 +0000

As we continue our Apple Theme for the month of September- here are a few more ideas that might be fun to try.

Did you know that when you cut an apple in half, through the core, you will find the shape of a star in the middle? That is only one interesting thing about cutting up apples.

Have the children try and predict how many seeds are inside an apple? Write down their guesses on a large piece of paper and then use the cut apple (after discovering the star) to dig out the seeds and count them together. (Seeds are a choking hazard, so be sure to keep the Under-3’s away from the seeds.)

Next, you can use the apples to make apple prints. Be sure to cut them the long way this time, so the shape of the apple is apparent when pressing them down.

How about this song- Be sure to use the names of the children in your group.

Five red apples in a grocery store
Bobby bought one & then there were 4
Four red apples on an apple tree
Susie ate one & then there were 3
Three red apples. What did Alice do?
Why she ate one & then there were 2
Two red apples ripening in the sun
Tommy ate one, & now there was one
One red apple & now we are done
I ate the last one & now there are none!

How do you like them apples?

Early Math Counts — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 11:00:22 +0000

During the fall, a plentiful harvest and the low cost of apples provides us with a great theme to introduce to the children – APPLES! When I taught kindergarten, we used apples as a means to explore all sorts of mathematical and scientific concepts. For the month of September, let’s explore Apples together.

Graphing-

Make sure to purchase a variety of apples; big and small, red, green and yellow. Place them in a large bowl and ask the children to sort them according to size or color (Don’t expect young children to consider two aspects of something simultaneously; i.e. color and size). Once sorted into groups, help children to create a graph that represents how many of each group. Enjoy the apples at snack time.

Singing-

Have you ever heard the song “Way up High in the Apple Tree”? I have sung this song with young children for years and years. I don’t know who wrote it or where it came from (if I did, I would cite it!). It goes like this:

“Way up high in the apple tree (hold hands up and wiggle fingers)

4 little apples smiled at me (hold up 2 fingers on each hand and wiggle them)

I shook that tree as hard as I could (pretend to shake that tree)

and 2 fell out….mmm, mmm good. (Show 2 fingers falling down and leave 2 fingers up).”

Follow up the verse with the question, “If there were 4 apples and 2 fell out, how many are left?”.

Repeat the song with different quantities of apples and different numbers falling out.

I wish I could sing it for you so you could hear the tune….I will explore that as a possibility for another time.