Apple Graphing Activity

    Each child samples a red, green and yellow apple, decides which color is their favorite and places a cutout apple on a chart to represent their choice. Children count the apples under each color and put a numeral under each column. This activity teaches early graphing, color and number recognition all in one tasty activity.
 
 

 

Ten Little Indians

    These finger puppets and numerals were used to relate a numeric symbol to the song Ten Little Indians.
 
 

Counters and Software

     Fruit and Veggie counters were used with the teacher made Intellipics software called Counting Fruits & Veggies found on the software page. Counter objects were purchased through Lakeshore catalogs.  Below you will find a shape gameboard which can be used for any thematic unit by changing the type of counters.  Children are asked to find a color or the name of a fruit and place it on a shape.  Or you can make a shape spinner seen below which can be purcahsed from AbleNet.
 

Shape Spinner Game

    This single switch spinner from AbleNet is used with the teacher made shape board above. A child spins to land on a shape and places a marker on the board under the matching shape. As the game progresses the children are given a chance to "predict" which shape will finish first.
 
 
 
 

Turkey Name Game

    In each unit we provide different activities for children to identify their names. This month the children must find a feather with their name on it and place it on the turkey. See the music page for the song we sing to identify the child whose turn it is to get their feather.
 
 

Hallway Learning

    Our children's school day is only 3 1/2 hours long.  Therefore we try to put opportunities for learning everywhere including the activity above in our hallway.  This activity is used in two ways.  In the original concept it was designed to be  a game to match the color word to the correct colored object on the wall. (Adults assist when needed to read the word.)  The children have also decided to use the objects to "line up under" before entering the classroom.  The children will proclaim "I'm under the orange pumpkin!"  We change the objects in the hall with each theme but use the activity all year long.
 
 

Corny Shapes

    The corn cobs above were used to decorate our classroom entrance.  The corn cob was printed from computer clip art on  yellow paper.  Four shapes were cut in eleven different colors and put into a large basket.  The children pulled out one color of each shape and told the teacher the name/shape before gluing onto their corn cob.
 
 

Color Turkey

    Feathers on the turkey seen above are attached by the children using velcro.  Children are asked to "find the red feather and put it on Mr. Turkey."
 
 

Color Fruit & Veggie Book

I like oranges,
Yes I do.
Good for me,
And good for you!

    This teacher made book was designed to work on the names of food items as well as their color.  There is a page to highlight each color and can be made to match the colors of the fruit in our software named Counting Fruits and Vegetables.
 

The Learning Workshop is a resource for educational materials.  The book and materials below were made from their Hungry Worm Resource Packet, Alphabet Charts, Tape and Accordion Book.  The Tape has a catchy little song that sings through the alphabet. Slight alterations were made with these packets.  The first alteration was to use Velcro for the pages in our laminated accordion book.  This allowed the children to find the correct letter and put them in the pages as the song progressed.  The second alteration involved writing to the company and requesting permission to make The Hungry Worm Alphabet into an electronic book to use during our computer time. (Written permission is important to avoid copyright problems. Most companies will approve as long as you own a copy of the book and both stay within your ownership.)  To make our electronic book we used HyperStudio, ClickIt! and the Intellikeys Keyboard with an alphabet overlay.  When the children touched a letter our electronic book would show the alphabet page an sing the song for that particular letter.   This electronic book can also play straight through and is designed for students unable to turn pages.  We also enjoy using it for participation in small group instruction. The puppet seen below was purchased at a local children's bookstore and is not available with the Hungry Worm materials.

 

"Lunch" Activities

    The following activity is centered around the book Lunch by Denise Fleming and develops the concepts of counting, weight and language. Each food that our mouse ate in this book is weighed on a balance scale using pennies as a counter balance. The language concepts of "more,less and the same" were used as the pennies were counted.  The results were charted by two of our center workgroups.

 

Color Turkey Hat Game

    The game below was purchased through the Oriental Trading Co. Fall 1999 catalog. We made up this little song to the tune of Pop Goes The Weasel to play our game. As we sing the song a designated child puts the right color hat on the turkey's head. (Hats are a attached using velcro.)

The Turkey
The Turkey wears a (color) hat,
His head goes wobble, wobble,
The Turkey says just one funny word,
Gobble,gobble, gobble

 

Fruit  Graphing

    Using the Take-A-Turn Spinner from AbleNet children (below) take turns to spin for a fruit. Plastic fruit counters that can be purchased at Lakeshore Learning can be placed in a square on our graph.  At the end of 10 min. of play the children count the fruit in each category.  Then place the correct number in the correct column.

For questions or detailed information please send email to:
 thematic@sbcss.k12.ca.us

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