We learn about a variety of life cycles throughout the our kindergarten science lessons, and we start with exploring the apple life cycle!  Johnny Appleseed's birthday is September 26th, and we complete our apple study throughout the week of his birthday.  I like to kick off the week  with the story of THE LITTLE RED HOUSE WITH NO DOORS AND NO WINDOWS AND A STAR INSIDE.  The next thing we do is complete a taste test with red, yellow, and green apples, and we graph the results.  We LOVE any lessons that involve food!  This one is no different.  

Record the results of your taste test with this simple kindergarten arts and crafts math activity!  Graph your favorite apples!

Another math lesson we do includes a shape recognition activity.

I love how these apple counting activity crafts turned out in our friend, Ms. Robert's classroom!   These are available in our TpT store only.  Click either image to head there!

We also perform a science experiment together by placing apples in water, air, and vinegar.  This is our first experiment of the year, so I introduce the kids to "Mrs. Silly Scientist" by wearing safety goggles and speaking with an accent.  When we perform experiments, we complete the following procedure:
1) Observe.
2) Ask a question.
3) Make a hypothesis.
4) Conduct the experiment.
5) Discuss results.
I always love the kids' initial hypotheses. :) They get more on-track as the school year progresses. 

We check in on our experiment daily for a week during our morning meeting activities.  The results are interesting!  

We read lots of apple books throughout the week!  The Biggest Apple Ever is a favorite fictional apple book.  (We read all of Clayton and Desmond's books throughout the year.  They provide examples of sharing and friendship.  If you've never read them before, I suggest checking them out!) Picking Apples is a fictional story, but it provides the students with a field trip to the apple orchard!

After reading our Johnny Appleseed book, students write facts about him.  

Another writing activity we do is with the letters of our name on apples.  

This apple life cycle craft is one of our biggest sellers, which is why it is currently FREE for you to use with your students!  We complete this craft after reading  How Do Apples Grow?  This gives the kids a hands-on opportunity to understand each part of the life cycle.  

We refer to this apple life cycle anchor chart throughout the week to prepare us for the craft.  Each day, we act it out, like this:
Seed (get low to the ground and hug legs)
Water (pretend to sprinkle water on heads)
Sun (make a circle over our heads)
Buds (stand)
Leaves (waved hands)
Flowers (pop hands open and closed)
Apples (form circle with hands)
Eat!
(Repeat, faster!)

We offer even more apple crafts in our store, some included in discounted bundles, so be sure to check out our SHOP if you're looking for more apple fun!  We craft for each life cycle we study throughout our kindergarten science lessons!

Thanks for stopping by Krazy for Kindyland!  Enjoy your apple study!

Connecting a kindergarten writing lesson with a picture book provides our young learners with a concrete concept for their writing and drawing. Finding picture books kids love, like Mo Willems' Pigeon books, gives kids an engaging topic; adding in some arts and crafts allows for fine motor opportunities and hands-on connections to the characters.
In our transitional kindergarten classroom, I start this writing activity by reading several pigeon books from Mo Willems' series.  If you've never read his books before, oh my goodness, do it!  His books are my absolute favorite read alouds.  There are so many opportunities for voice changes and animation, giving you the chance to be super silly with the kids!  Some of Mo's famous titles are listed below.  If you don't own any of his books yet or they are unavailable at your library, you might use the following youtube links to share with your class:

Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus
The Pigeon HAS to Go to School
The Pigeon Finds a Hotdog
The Pigeon Want a Puppy
Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late

After reading the book or books of your choice, introduce your writing lesson.  The writing options provided in our craft pack are open-ended, so they can be used with any of the pigeon books.  Three writing options are included to meet the needs of your students.  Here are a few ideas to get you started:
Draw the characters in the story.
Draw a picture of what Pigeon wanted to drive.
Draw a picture of Pigeon when he's mad.
Write a sentence to tell what Duckling wanted to put on his hotdog.

Once your students have completed their writing, glue the sheets to standard sheets of construction paper to create a frame around it.  Then create Pigeon!  Glue him to the top of the frame.

Here's how Pigeon turned out in our classroom:

We just LOVE connecting to picture books with writing lessons and arts and crafts!  Prep for back to school with this craft bundle that includes our top 12 book companion crafts to create throughout the course of an entire school year! Teachers love these engaging, across the curriculum crafts that also encourage students to practice their fine motor skills! Students just LOVE to create and learn with their favorite book characters! 

Contents:
Page 1: Cover
Page 2: Product Details
Pages 3-11: Tacky the Penguin Craft and Writing: Draw an act of kindness.
Pages 12-18: Sneezy the Snowman Ice Cream Scoop Addition (to 7) and Comprehension Craft
Pages 19-25: Too Many Carrots Craft and Writing: I share…
Pages 26-35: Knuffle Bunny Craft and Drawing: Draw two characters from the story.
Pages 36-40: Wordy Birdy: Draw the problem and solution.
Pages 41-45: Dragons Love Tacos: Make a list of ingredients for tacos.
Pages 46-52: Caps for Sale: Addition Craft (for 5 up to 17)
Pages 53-60: Pete the Cat Craft and Writing (blank lines)
Pages 61-69: Mo Willems’ Pigeon Craft and Writing (for any Pigeon book)
Pages 70-79: Spookley, the Square Pumpkin Craft and Writing: I am unique because…
Pages 80-90: Mrs. Wishy Washy’s Farm Craft and Drawing: Draw her farm animals.
Pages 91-100: Santa’s Stuck Craft and Drawing: I will get him out

Click the picture below to access your FREE (for a limited time) kindergarten arts and crafts writing lesson pack with Pigeon!  Subscribe to get FREE crafts delivered straight to your inbox!

Those big yellow buses are about to make their way to houses all around the neighborhood!  That means it's time for us to start talking about bus safety with our kiddos!  We like to tie in our bus rules lessons with a differentiated kindergarten math activity that includes teaching shapes!

To get started, we move chairs to our carpet area, creating an aisle down the middle.  We pretend to enter and exit the bus.  I am the driver, and I pretend to open the door, waving students in.  We discuss the main rules for the bus:
1) Walk in the aisles.
2) Sit in your seat.
3) Keep your body out of the aisles.
4) Be quiet at railroad crossings.

When it's time for our math activity lesson, we incorporate our bus theme by teaching shapes and creating some arts and crafts.  At the beginning of the year, most students are comfortable tracing shapes with the first sheet shown below.  We use markers to trace a parallelogram, rectangle, square, triangle, and rhombus.  I copy the free drawing sheet on the back.  Once students have had a chance to practice on the front of the sheet, they try their best to draw shapes on their own on the back.  This gives me a baseline for a shape drawing assessment in August, too.  

Once we have had some practice drawing shapes, I introduce the bus craft and review the 2D shapes again.  Students use their fine motor skills to create cute little buses!  Upon completion, students glue their buses to the tops of the shape worksheets, displaying the side of the worksheet of their choice.  This makes a fun back to school bulletin board display in the hallway!

For a limited of time, try our bus shape craft pack with our FREE download!  This is included in our MEGA bundle, listed above, so consider it a preview for reviewing shapes for the year ahead!

As I have said many times, we REALLY love incorporating arts and crafts into our kindergarten learning with book companions and writing prompts, along with science and socials studies. Teaching math concepts with craft activity packs miiiiight be my favorite, though, because they're hands-on and not like a typical math worksheet.  Students use the paper as a manipulative, and teachers get a concrete sample of their work at the same time.  Kids truly show what they know about the math concept being taught.  

If you've been following us for a while, you know how much we enjoy incorporating picture books with our learning.  We include at least one math picture book in our unit of study on a weekly basis.  It is so important to expose our students to a wide variety of teaching methods to be sure we connect with each and every one of them.  Books provide students with engaging visuals, and I find that it really helps students understand the objectives of our lessons.

So let's try a math activity with the classic book, Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina. Make a connection to text, and complete this differentiated addition craft!  Students color the hat set and complete an addition sentence to match.  Note that a student could complete the addition sentence using just 1 hat set for addition to 5, or a student could use all 4 hat sets for addition to 17. Varied sentence sheets are included with this pack, too.  Students could add 2, 3, or 4 numbers to 1. There are plenty of ways to meet the needs of all of your students by making the craft slightly easier or a little more challenging.  Upon completion, glue a half sheet of standard construction paper behind the addition sheet to create a frame.  Then glue the craft to the top of the frame for display!  ​

Once you try this math activity with your kiddos, you'll see how much addition crafts push them to truly think about the concepts of adding numbers.  This is why we have created a MEGA addition bundle that is currently priced at OVER 50% off!  Regularly priced at $73.50, this addition arts and crafts bundle is on sale for $35, just $1.59 per craft!  At such an affordable price, we want to make sure your students have the opportunity to be engaged with math for the entire school year!  

Enjoy creating your (temporarily) FREE addition math activity with us!  We'd LOVE your feedback on our Caps for Sale book companion craft, so be sure to drop your comments below!