We have been speaking about going apple picking for a whole week so when I finally said that we would go today the kids where very excited. Pink and I made an apple word tree earlier in the week so she was dying to go and pick real apples.
I drew a tree for Pink and then she stuck the apples with the words that she knew onto the branches. The apples are from a free apple language pack done by Cassie on 3 Dinosaurs.
We went to a farm (Garsons) in the area that has vegetable and fruit picking fields. It is a great outdoor activity to do with the kids and it really brings home the whole idea of where we get our food from.
My little boy was totally intrigued by the fact that there where apples on the ground
and was thrilled when he found some apples with worms.
Finally we managed to get him to actually pick some apples off the tree. We where also in luck as the strawberry fields where still full so after finishing with the apples and some plums we got some yummy strawberries
After a lovely morning picking fruit I thought the kids would be tired (I know I was) but once we got home both kids wanted to do some more apple activities. Pink wanted to use the trees that we had made over the weekend. The trees we made where very simple – we just cut out a tree trunk and branches in brown paper and a big green roundish shape and stuck them together. I think if you are using something like this for a Maths activity it is better to keep it simple as you do not want it to be too distracting.
We took out our number tub and both kids sat down with a tree and started looking for apples.
Blue is still learning his number so he choose a number, put the number on the tree trunk and then he had to add the correct number of apples to his tree (beads from the tub). Blue liked having multicoloured apples.
With Pink we used the tree to practice some number bonds. She would choose a number place it on the tree trunk and add the correct number of apples to the tree. Then we would look at different ways for the apples to be grouped so we could make up the total.
Pink really like this and I think part of the success for her was the fact that we where using trees which she helped me make. However if you are looking for some templates to print off I found these these FREE number trees on Twinkl which would work.
Come and visit this weeks Home Ed link up so see some other great Home Ed posts
ofamily learning together 