Brief description of lesson: The lesson warms up with sorting circles and making a circle poster. The handouts include photos of real objects with a circular shape. This lesson uses the story, “Picking Apples,” from the Reading A-Z website. In the activity connected to the story, students make a picture with apples in a tree and in a basket.
Students learn the counting rhyme, “Three Little Apples.” This counting rhyme includes information for parents about rhyming and is available in four languages: English, Burmese, Karen, and Spanish.
Where to find suggestions to differentiate the activities: The “Supplies and Supporting Ideas for the Early Childhood Lesson” section attached to the lesson plan is more than a supply list. It offers suggestions about how Educators can adjust the lesson activities for students who are beginners as opposed to those students who are more experienced with matching shapes, using scissors, and writing letters.
Resources from Other Websites:
- This lesson uses graphics from http://clipart-library.com/
- “Picking Apples” is a Level “aa” book from the Reading A-Z website, available in English and Spanish.
- Check with your METS Director to find out more about this website.
- The website has a 14-day free trial period, with limited access to the book titles.
- Otherwise, one needs to purchase a license to use for one year.
- Note: If this story is unavailable, substitute with another story about a picnic or about eating
Organization of Files Below: These files are organized by whom the intended user is.
- “Educator” means the printout can be reused with other students, so you only need to print one copy per educator
- “Student” means the file is consumable, so you need to print one copy per student
- “Parent” means the file is meant to leave with each family, so it is suggested to print one copy per family, if possible
Language Sets
This lesson has multiple files in languages other than English. The individual files are listed first. Then we created “Language” Sets. These reorganize all of the student and parent files into four home language sets: English, Burmese, Karen, and Spanish. Each Language Set contains all of the student and parent handouts, in the lesson, including any that did not need translation. Note about printing: The sets can be printed 2-sided because they have blank pages behind the handouts that need to be single-sided.
- For Students:
- My Circle Poster
- Sorting Circles
- Apples in the Basket
- For Parents:
- Information for Parents-Shapes
- Three Apples Counting Rhyme and Information about Rhyming
MASTER SET
- The MASTER SETs have one of everything, starting with the lesson plan - except for the story. (The story needs to be accessed from the Reading A-Z website.)