The Red Class had a lot of fun talking about apples in our autumn unit last week. We picked apples from a tree in our dramatic play area; we sorted red, green, and yellow apple pompoms into their corresponding buckets; and we decorated apple shapes with crumpled tissue paper. All of these activities strengthen the small muscles of the hand which are necessary for learning to write.

We finished the week with an apple taste test. Each child tasted a piece of a red, green and yellow apple and said which was their favorite. We charted the results: red was the winner with 7 votes, yellow came in second with 3 votes, and green earned 0 votes. Many children said it was too sour! After the taste test, we gathered in a circle to talk about the results. I prompted the children with questions like, “What color of apple did our class like the most? What color did our class like the least? What color of apple did nobody like? What can we learn about our class just by looking at this chart?” Charting data like this is a great way to introduce mathematical concepts such as counting, sorting, comparing and analyzing.