Here are Apple theme activities that are good for preschool, kindergarten and grade 1. It is a really nice theme to pair with a sensory bin!
Some activities target speech, language and fine motor skills.
The OT centers are meant to target fine motor skills that include printing practice, Q-tips, playdoh, blocks and erasers. These centers target hand strength, manipulation, and other fine motor skills needed for young children need.
You can use each of them any way you like them but here are some suggestions:
•Playdoh- the child can use the black and white version to color, or make a face (targeting emotions) in the apple. With the color version, you can use play-doh to practice the outline of the apple or mini erasers.
•Q-tip- using paint, the children can outline the apples. Make sure to cut the Q-tip in half to encourage proper pencil grasp.
•Alphabet practice- can use with dry erase markers, or printing practice in a sensory bin (rice/sand, etc.).
•Number practice- you can have the students practice writing the numbers or put blocks/small erasers that represent the number shown.
These centers are meant to target speech and language skills -like vocabulary, category naming, concepts, phoneme identification, and phoneme counting. Most of these are all skills children need to master before they start to read.
You can use each of them any way you like them but here are some suggestions:
•Apple Basket Categories- depending on the age and skill level you can use as many or as few categories as you like. For young children, you can start with 2 very different categories: for example animals and food. As the children progress, you can make the activity more difficult: animals with fur and animals with feathers. Some other ideas are farm animal/forest animals, ocean animals/ land animals, vehicles that go on land /ocean, etc. Many of the pictures may apply to several groups. Again, use your judgement to include the pictures that will work best for your group.
•One sheet Language center- if you are in a pinch try the no-prep sheet, you can use page 29 for your group and go through the sheet individual, or as a group.
•Category name- if your children are writing they can pick a card from the pile (cut and laminate page 36 and place all pictures in a pile) as they pull a card they can label the category name and write it down. If your children are younger they can just verbally label the category name. Many of the pictures can be called different names (animals/farm animals/pets). Snowman (things outside, things you find in winter, cold things, etc., again, use your judgment as to whether the answer is correct or not. To extend the activity you can have the student name more items from that category.
•Concepts- have the children circle the correct concept. To extend, you can use manipulatives to show the concepts cards around the classroom or use manipulatives with a small group.
•Identify the digraph- have the children pick one of the cards (again cut, laminate and place in a pile) then have the children say the word and place it on the correct apple according to the sound they heard. You can use 1 or 2 sounds or all 3 depending on age and skill.
