Tiny Teach {A is for Apples}

I'm a little late in posting this, but during our Tiny Teach 2 weeks ago, we learned the letter A and studied apples.  

Here is my lesson plan. 

Click on the image to enlarge.

However, I planned way too much for one week, and we didn't accomplish everything in my plans!  I've been stressing myself out trying to plan out every second of our weeks.  So, I had to do a lot of thinking and restructuring to make this more helpful for Lil' Pumpkin & less stressful for me.  I feel like I've spent hours creating activities to do & then in five minutes, he's done or moving on to something else.   

So...my solution is to change from weekly plans to monthly plans.  We will focus on at least 2 letters a month, so by the time Lil' Pumpkin is 3 1/2, he will hopefully be able to identify all his letters!  We will still center our learning on mini-themes during the month.  So, for example, in November, we will focus on T for turkeys, I for Indians, Pilgrims, & Thanksgiving.  All our skills for the month will fit into these mini-themes.  Spreading our learning out over a month will allow for repetition of activities (which helps little brains retain the information better)! 

Anywho, our apple week was jam-packed.  Take a look at what Lil' Pumpkin & I had fun doing together...

For our feely letter, we glued aluminum foil to an A.

We went on a color hunt around the house to find LOTS of red things.

We made Apple Spice Playdough & Mimi got to help with this project because it was her Fall Break!

Here's our playdough & it smells so yummy!

I was inspired by Mama Jen to make a "Worms in the Apple" game. I just simplified it a little bit.  Lil' Pumpkin had to decide how many worms (pipe cleaners) to put in each apple with numbers 1-3 on them. 

We laced up an apple with yarn.

Our A Muffin Tin Meal (even though it's not actually in a muffin tin) ~

apple juice, applesauce, apple jacks, and an apple butter tortilla cut with an apple cookie cutter

We took a "field trip" to Applewood in Pigeon Forge, TN where there is an Apple Store, Apple Restaurant, and lots of apple trees!  If you're ever in East TN, you must visit!

We painted with apple halves to decorate our "apple picking bag."

This is him saying, "Look Mommy, an apple!"

Me & my Lil' Pumpkin

Lil' Pumpkin & Daddy

Such a cutie!

We also played "Five Little Apples," read the Bible story of Adam & Eve.  I made a paper doll activity to go along with it, but we didn't have time to do it.  You can download the paper dolls HERE and the eden story mat HERE.  I was going to put magnets on mine and play on our magnet board.