Fill your literacy center with apple-themed activities. On paper, write ""A" is for "Apple," and print an upper- and lowercase letter "A." Have children trace the letters and then place apple stickers on the paper. Encourage children to think of as many words as they can that begin with the letter "A." Fill the center with apple-themed books, such as "Johnny Appleseed" by Steven Kellog, "Ten Apples Up On Top" by Theodore LeSieg, "Apples, How They Grow" by Bruce McMillian and "Apples" by Gail Gibbons. On cut out pictures of apples, print upper- and lowercase letters and have children match the letters.
Use apple-themed activities to reinforce basic math skills. Draw pictures of trees and on each tree, write a number. Have children place an amount of apple stickers on each tree that corresponds with the numbers printed on them; for instance, children put three apple stickers on the tree marked with the number three. Have children use apple seeds as manipulatives to represent each addend in addition problems and count the total number of apple seeds to determine the sums of the problems. Cut small, medium and large sized apple shapes out of different colored construction paper and have students use the shapes to create patterns and sort the apples based on common attributes.
In the art center, students can create different types of apples and apple pictures. Cut apples in half and have children press them into paint and stamp them onto paper. Offer children cut out pictures of apples and have them tear and crumple up pieces of red or green tissue paper and glue them onto the pictures. Encourage children to paint pictures of apple trees and dip their fingers into red paint and press them onto their trees, creating apples.
In your dramatic play center, provide students with props to set up and operate a pretend apple orchard. Hang pictures of apple trees on the walls. Set out plastic apples, baskets and bags and encourage children to pretend that they are picking apples. Put out a cash register and a scale and encourage kids to weigh the bushels of apples and ring one another up after they've picked their apples.