You and your child will make apple prints and applesauce. You’ll taste a variety of different apples, and hopefully, you can visit an apple orchard. Have fun with the activities, but if there’s ever one that you can’t do, or you think is above or below your child’s ability level, just substitute something else.

Apples for Everyone

My two year old granddaughter is a very picky eater, but we are trying something I mentioned in an earlier post, Feeding the Finicky Eater. I guess you could call it Total Immersion. I chose one food item I wished my granddaughter would eat and I served it over and over. She had sliced apples, cooked apples, applesauce, apple wedges in caramel sauce, and even apple juice, apple fruit leather, and apple pie filling. I thought that maybe if she had it often enough, it would become “familiar”. It’s only been a few days for us, but so far it seems to be working! My granddaughter ate almost one half of an apple today at lunch!

If possible, walk through an apple orchard with your child this week. Maybe you have a neighbor with two or more trees, or maybe there is a large commercial orchard nearby. But teach your child what an apple tree looks like in spring, summer, autumn and winterl – what ever season you happen to be living in now. Talk about how the tree grows buds (spring) which ripen (summer) into big, luscious red apples (fall!). Then in the winter, the branches are bare.

Suggested Picture Books for This Unit

If you can, log on to your library’s website, and place a hold on as many of these books as you can. What I love about the “hold” service, is when I run into the library, the books are all there for me to check out. I don’t have to search for them with a preschooler. Try to gather your books about two weeks before you’ll need them. Then if you decide you want to purchase a few books, you’ll still have time for them to arrive.

• Dr. Seuss’s ABC by Dr. Seuss
• Nutshell Library (Caldecott Collection) by Maurice Sendak
• Bright Baby First Words by Roger Priddy
• My Book of Alphabet Games by Kumon Publishing
• B is for Bethlehem by Isabel Wilner
• Sheep in a Jeep by Nancy Shaw
• How to Make an Apple Pie by Marjorie Priceman
• Ten Apples Up on Top! By Dr. Seuss
• One Green Apple by Eve Bunting
• The Apple Pie Tree by Zoe Hall
• Johnny Appleseed by Reeve Lindbergh

Interesting Alphabet Toys and Games

This items are optional, but very nice, if you would like to add them to your list. There seems like a lot, but these are of course, the entire alphabet, not just for the letter A. Personally, I love the Sesame Street CD listed first. It’s “classic” Sesame Street. My children sang these songs nearly thirty years ago. I still know all the words to at least half of them. I haven’t seen the Animal DVD yet, but a number of parents gave it a five-star rating.

• Sesame Street’s Sing the Alphabet CD
• Animal Alphabet DVD
• Melissa & Doug Chunky Alphabet Puzzle
• Melissa & Doug Deluxe Alphabet Stamp Set
• Wikki Stix Alphabet Fun Cards for Learning
• Brighter Child Flash Cards Alphabet from Carson Dellosa
• Melissa & Doug Magnetic Wooden Alphabet

A is for Apples! Lesson Plans

Happy Apple Week.

And if you’d like to begin more formal reading instruction, check out these related posts:
How to teach your baby to read
The pros and cons of early reading
Reading Readiness

Photo Credits:
Top: photo by Floyd Out