Our Apple Tree

Last week the students discovered an apple tree in our Kindergarten yard.  This lead them to come up with a series of questions which in turn lead our inquiry unit this week on the life of an apple tree.

One of the first questions from the students was how the apple tree changed over the seasons.  They knew from our inquiry last week about why the leaves changed colours but they wanted to see what an apple tree looked like throughout the different seasons.

The students learned through different stories and art projects what the trees looked like over the different seasons.  When they had learned this some of the students decided to tell the trees outside what would happen to them over the seasons so they were not worried about these changes.

Studying apple trees gave us so many amazing opportunities to incorporate math into our day.  The students graphed each morning their favourite type of apple and which season they preferred best for our apple tree.

The students also worked to sort apples by attribute and then make patterns with the apples. This week the students were introduced to the concept of a pattern core which is the smallest part of the pattern (like a stamp) that repeats over and over again.  We also had fun as a whole group measuring each other with apples!  In sampling our apples the students were also introduced to the concept of a whole, a half, thirds and quarters.  This also extended into a writing activity where they wrote about their favourite apples.

The students also had the chance to play with loose parts to build apple trees and see how many apples (buttons and pompoms) they could balance on top of their structure.

Our sensory activities this week included making apples out of play dough with stems, leaves and worms!  The students also created pretend apple crumble in the sensory bin.