Literature Highlight & Activity - Dappled Apples

The last few mornings I have loved the fresh crisp smell of fall in the air... with the start of fall many classrooms are doing activities involving apples. One book I must read each and every fall is the the lovely book Dappled Apples by Jan Carr.




The words in this book flow with delightful rhymes and alliteration..."flutter, flitter, gold as glitter, colors crackle round the tree....pumpkin pile-up...evil fairy, Yikes! She's scary! Patched-up pirate, Who is he?..." From jumping in piles of fall leaves to pumpkin patches and trick-or-treating this book highlights all the reasons children (and adults) love the fall. The illustrations are made of bright, colorful cut-paper collages that give the reader a 3-D effect.

I read Dappled Apples several times during the fall season and do the following after each phase of the book:

After reading the first part about apples: take your child to an apple orchard. Children love the act of picking their own apples just like the children in the book. It teaches your children about seasonal foods and where apples come from.

After reading about fall leaves: go outside and pile up leaves with your children. Then join them in a leave jumping (which usually also ends up in leaf throwing) party.

After reading about the pumpkin patch, take your children to a pumpkin patch. Pack the following items: crayons (or other drawing utensils), paper, and a clipboard. (You don't HAVE to take a clipboard, anything hard will work, but children LOVE using clipboards, plus with the wind that comes in the fall it will be easier to hold your children's paper... so I highly recommend purchasing one... or several if you are a teacher. I will continue to post activities where children do things outside and will need clipboards.) While at the pumpkin patch have your children go on a hunt for interesting looking pumpkins. Once they find their favorite unique pumpkin have them draw a picture of it (or of a whole group of pumpkins). If you have a little extra cash, I also recommend buying the pumpkins. It is always fun to actually take one of the pumpkins home.



After reading the part about trick-or-treating have your children sit around your art table (my art table is our dining room table covered in a plastic table cloth I purchased at a dollar store). Place scissors (I recommend children's scissors, also if you can get some scissors with different blades they are really fun to use), construction paper, and glue at the table. Then have your children make their own cut-paper collage pictures of Halloween costumes.

Happy Dappled Apple-ing!!!

Classroom Management - Free Choice

Whether at home or in the classroom there are times when both you and the children need some unstructured, no-adult-needed, "down time." When I say "unstructured" I don't mean free reign, I mean, free to choose to do whatever they like out of a pre-established set of choices and associated expectations for proper use of materials.

Directions for implementation:

1. Designate an area of your home or classroom as your "free choice" area. This step is crucial. If you don't have an established area it will likely turn into free choice headache plus (meaning some things will be for free choice but over time other things that you don't want used as free choice will likely start to show up there and/or it will get messy and ultimately it ruins the beauty of having free choice). The area can be any size you want. A corner of a room, a single shelf on a book case, a box kept in the same place in the same closet, etc. If you are at home and have a play room, designate part of the room for this, not the entire room.
*A point of clarification, this designated area is where you store the free choice activities, you can certainly have them use the materials wherever you would like.

2. Place one (yes one and ONLY one) free choice activity in that area (this is just to begin, you will add more later). If you start with more than one it won't work so well.. but I will explain later. I recommend starting with jigsaw puzzles, because they are inexpensive to purchase, easy to find, easy for children to do without guidance, you can find puzzles designed for any age and they are GREAT for development. My daughter has been doing puzzles since she was knee-high to a grasshopper.. he he... and she has gotten very good at them over time to the point of helping my husband and me with 500+ piece puzzles.

3. Take a picture of the free choice spot/area. Print off a copy of the picture (laminate it on cardstock if you can, if you can't, paste it on cardstock and either self-laminate with duct tape or put it inside a baggie). Then tape/tack/whatever it to your area. It needs to be in an area where the children can see it for they will use it as a guide every time they clean up so they know where to return the materials so the area stays organized.

4. Show the area to your children. This step is also crucial. If done well you won't have to re-teach this area over and over again. Have the children sit down in front of the area and tell them it is the new free choice area. Explain that when, and only when, you tell them they can have free choice time (feel free to name it whatever you want.. I have heard it called "self directed" "free time" "explore time" "discovery" etc. just find one term and always use the same term) they can come to this area and use the materials that are there. Explain that these are the only materials they can use during this time, that the materials will always be kept there, and that this is where the materials will be returned at the end of free choice. Show them the picture you took of the area and explain that you expect the area to look the same as in the picture after they have finished cleaning up from free choice EVERY time.

5. While they are still in the area give them directions as to how you want the children to use the puzzles (or whatever activity you have in that area). If you want them to be careful opening and closing boxes, tell them that and demonstrate how you want them to open and close them. Think through your expectations, share them with the children, and demonstrate them.

6. After you have set your ground rules, let the children use the materials. Once this is well established you now have free time of your own. However, for the first few "gos" I recommend finding something somewhat close to the children that you can do so you can still monitor their use of the materials. In doing so you can correct any behaviors immediately so they know the rules are set in stone.

7. Once their free time is up have the children practice putting the materials away the way you demonstrated. If they struggle to do it correctly, have them do it again. If they still don't do it right. Do it for them then have them do it again. (You can later put a timer or a clock in the area with the end time marked so they can see how much time they have... if you choose to do this, it CAN be shown and taught at any time. Just make sure you teach the children about it so they know how they can use it. Also... I always give my children a verbal warning a few minutes in advance so they can mentally prepare themselves for the end of free time and aren't surprised when it is over.)

8. Once you have success with the first activity (and I suggest doing it at least twice), add another activity. You will need to repeat *taking the picture of the area (if you add things that aren't in the picture the picture is useless), *teaching the children where the materials are kept in the area, *how to use the materials and *how to put the materials away correctly.

Puzzles, wooden building blocks, Lego's, K'Nex, Lincoln Logs and board games all work well for activity choices. Some people use sand and water trays. I think these types of messy activities are great for children to explore, but I don't use them for free choice because my view of free choice are activities that are easy to clean up.

Here are a few of links with specific items I have used that work well but there are thousands out there to choose from:



Happy Free Time!!!

Rainy Day Activities

At home or at school it is always a good idea to have access to ideas for a "rainy day." Many of the activities I will post on this blog can be used as a rainy day activity (my music drawings for example. Click this link to see what I am referring to: http://sugarnspicesnailsntales.blogspot.com/2009/08/art-activity-music-drawings.html )

Collecting ideas is easy, it is the organization and updating that is easily left behind... when this happens many rainy days can go by without actually using these days to have fun with your children/students. Here are a couple of suggestions that have worked for me:

1. Purchase a three-ring binger, a hole punch, dividers with tabs, and some plastic storage sheets to keep in the binder. When you have a good idea on my blog or elsewhere you can print out the idea and place it in your binder. As you begin to collect ideas use the dividers to categorize your ideas. If you are really organized you can also include an index at the front of your binder. Simply write down a list of your tabs and leave space under each tab name. As you add items to your binder you can write in the activities under the tab name in your index. The plastic storage sheets can be used to put your printed out ideas if you access your binder frequently. If you don't I would save the storage sheets to store games or activities that you have created to keep the entire project together (for example if you make a paper BINGO game you could keep the boards, call cards, and paper markers...if you choose to use markers over cereal or candy... all in the storage sheet so you know where to find it when you need it).

2. You can do basically the same thing as above only write/print the ideas on index cards and keep them in an index box... this is less convenient for storing pre-made games/activities, but it still works.

3. Same thing as above only use a shoe box, gift box, or other box so you can store activities and ideas all in the same place. Organize as you desire depending on the size of box and contents.

4. Purchase some books. The use of books that already have activity ideas in them is a fast and easy way to accumulate and store ideas. Plus you can keep them on your bookshelf (on my bookshelves at home and in the classroom I have books as well as binders). Here are a few book suggestions:



Finally, regardless of the choice of books, binders, or boxes, always keep them in the same designated place so you can access them quickly. It is also helpful to have a little storage bin stocked with crayons, paper, markers, glitter, glue etc. so you have materials ready when you need them. This doesn't have to be expensive and it doesn't have to be done at the same time. Add one item a week and you will be surprised at how quickly you have a little craft center. I recently found a great way to store my craft supplies at home:



The drawers have lids and handles so you can pull out an entire drawer dedicated to one or more items and carry it where you are going to do your activitying/crafting. When you are done using the supplies simply put them back in the drawer, close the lid (which is attached) and easily slide it back into its place. This has worked wonders for my daughter at home...no more cramming things into drawers that won't close.

Happy Rainy Days!