This lesson is part of a series of home preschool lessons I do for 2 and 3 year olds.  Click to see How I Do Letter of the Week Lessons and the Preschool learning supplies I use.

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Because this was the first time for the kids to come to my preschool I started out by having homemade playdough out for all the kids to play with, letter cookie cutters, and a playdough mat of the letter A.  The kids were all excited about the playdough and we talked about letters while they played with it.

 

 

At the beginning of the lessons I usually show the clip from the Leapfrog Letter Factory DVD for the featured letter and then we do a letter craft.

 

 

 

 

Below are the books we read throughout the lesson:

 

One Red Apple by Harriet Ziefert

With beautiful illustrations and short, simple text this book shows the life cycle of an apple.

 

 

Apple Farmer Annie by Monica Wellington
I really like how this book is simple and child friendly while also being very informative.  It helps kids understand where the apples (and other apple products) they eat come from and has detailed pictures we could talk about.

 

 

Secrets of the Apple Tree by Carron Brown and Alyssa Nassner

This is part of the popular Usborne Shine-A-Light series where you shine a flashlight behind the page to reveal a part of the picture that was previously hidden.  The kids were pretty transfixed with the book!

 

 

 

Ten Apples Up on Top by Dr. Seuss

I actually forgot to pick this one up from the library so we didn’t read it this time, but I still did the worksheet that accompanies it (shared below).

 

 

These are the activities we did:

 

 

 Apple sorting:  I drew a tree on my whiteboard and attached laminated apple cut-outs for the kids to take turns ‘picking’ and sorting into the right container by color.

 

I also did a round of letter sorting where there was a post-it note stuck to back of each letter with either an ‘A’ or a ‘B’ written on and they had to sort between the two letters.

 

 

Paper plate apple craft

 

 

A couple different individual activities that they completed and then rotated around the table:  Apple matching…

 

 

…apple size sequencing

 

 

…apple do a dot coloring sheet

 

 

…Ten Apples Up on Top counting do a dot sheet

 

 

I hid the apple cutouts around the room and the kids had to find and collect them all.  This simple activity is always a huge hit.

 

 

Snack we ate:

Apples!  I read “Apple Farmer Annie” while we they were eating and we talked about where those apples came from.

 

 

We always end our lesson with reading Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and adding the letter to our coconut tree.