A a Apple

"Still Life with Apples" by Vincent Van Gogh

It was a fantastic week.  We learned about apples and our words to remember were "If I stay in Jesus, I will bear much fruit".

I have to say, I really like our new workbox system.  It has been a great help in keeping us together these last two weeks.

Learning the parts of an apple with this neat little Montessori activity

handwriting...

math...

Reading "10 Apples Up On Top" and counting as we stack along

Roll the die and put that number of playdough seeds on the core

Cutting and pasting apples onto a grid

Claire works on her cutting and pasting skills too

phonics...

crossing out those things that don't start with "a"

picture card activity

I still need to figure out what to do with Lucy during school since she is giving up her morning nap.

 nature...

playing around anchor run farm on a beautiful fall day

 service and handicrafts (cooking)...

We baked "A" shaped apple cookies

We made apple scones to mail to Aunt Alyssa and Uncle Chris.  Nora helped spell out the note with alphabet stamps.

"poet tea"...

We started a new thing which we all love.  After nap we have a tea time and read from our poetry books.  I was doubtful that it would go over well but it was a huge hit!  I think well continue to try to fit it in a couple times a week.  There's just something so wonderful about tea and poetry in the middle of a fall day.

 sensory play...

Mini-Mommy gets Lucy ready to go outside

They made fall sensory jars

Jumping

reading...

• The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein
• A Tree is a Plant by Clyde Robert Bulla
• Apples by Ken Robbins
• How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World by Marjorie Priceman
• The Season's of Arnold's Apple Tree by Gail Gibbons
• Apples by Gail Gibbons
• Apples, Apples, Apples by Nancy Elixabeth Wallace
• The Life Cycle of an Apple by Ruth Thomson
• Golden Delicious: A Cinderella Apple Story by Anna Egan Smucker
• How Do Apples Grow by Betsy Maestro
• Amelia Bedelia's First Apple Pie by Herman Parish
• Apples A to Z by Margaret McNamara
• Little Apple Goat by Caroline Jayne Church
• Tree (Eyewitmess Books Series)
• Apple Farmer Annie by Monica Wellington
• The Apple Head Doll by Elisa Kleven
• A Picture of God: 3 in 1 by Joanne Marxhausen
• The Apple Pie Tree by Zoe Hall
• Apple Trees by Dorothy Hinshaw Patent
• Ten Apples Up On Top by Theo LeSieg
• Johnny Appleseed by David Harrison
• The Story of Johnny Appleseed by Aliki
• Johnny Appleseed by Reeve Lindbergh
• Poetry for Young People by Robert Frost
• Poetrees by Douglas Florian

 We had a visit from Nanny and Poppop Mikey who brought us a full dinner along with apple donughts and cider from Styers Orchard.  Such a wonderful treat to see them and enjoy a night off of cooking.  We also got to visit with Poppi and Mimi - we are so blessed to have our family near by!

There was so much in this unit that I wanted to get to and just didn't: making an apple head doll, apple sequence color and cut sheet, life cycle of apple cards, apple graph and taste testing, montessori nomenclature cards and a ton of apple ideas from here and here.

Here are some videos we enjoyed to go along with our themes:

• Disney's Johnny Appleseed 
• Mister Rogers - Season 1997, Episode 3 #1713
• Mister Rogers - Season 1984, Episode 6 #1536

And then the weekend....Camping at French Creek State Park with 3 other families...

This is what they did while I was busy packing for our camping trip. Nora is paper clipping my socks together while Claire supervises from the drawer.  They also did other delightful things that day like dump the contents of the trash can into the toilet (thank you, Lucy) and remove the stuffing from the couch, but I didn't capture those moments.  :)

Packing up the car to go

Waking up in the tent

I love this picture

Getting warm around the morning campfire

All the kids from left to right - Pippa, Payton, Romalie, Nico, Elianna, Beatrix, Nora, Janaya, Juniper, Liliana, Lincoln, Simeon, Claire, Coraline, Lucy (and Hunter and Myla are not pictured)

 We had the best time.  I absolutely adore these three families and it was just great to be able to camp with them.  I'm already looking forward to a repeat in the spring!