Letter Activities: A is for Apple Tree

The plan was to introduce the letters to my two and half year old in thematic order and tying them into things she is interested in. So I didn't intend on doing letter A now, especially since most of the lessons and activities I used while teaching revolve around apples, a theme best suited for the fall.

Then cutting became the favored activity in our house, and we ended up with a lot of green scraps from it. What do you do with a pile of little bits and pieces of green construction paper, but make an apple tree, of course!She has only been using these spring handled toddler scissors for a week or so. To make it easier for her, I cut paper into strips and she makes a lot of little snips into them. About half of the time she snips and rips but sometimes she does manage to make consecutive clips and cut a piece off. I freehand drew a tree top onto green cardstock. I used green so that any gaps wouldn't look weird and because I thought the thicker paper would hold up better to all the excess glue ER would most likely be squeezing onto it.

In the end, I had to add the glue, because true to form she sqeezed out half the bottle when I left the room to answer the phone. Other than that set back, she had grand ol' time gluing on all the pieces.I cut out the tree top shape and a letter A shape out of brown construction paper. I like this version of an apple tree activity because the letter A shape is incorporated into it. Then I laid it all out for ER to see. She was able to reassemble it and glue it down almost all by herself. I mainly had to monitor glue usage.

We used five red buttons to represent our apples. You could also use pom poms or circles cut out of red paper. Then I attached a fingerplay poem to the bottom. We've been singing the song together a few times a day, and she is so cute singing it!

Five Red Apples in an Apple Tree Fingerplay

Five red apples hanging in a tree (hold up five fingers)

The juciest apples you ever did see.

The wind came along and gave an angry frown (flutter fingers)

And one little apple came tumbling down. (hold up five fingers and bring one down)

Continue counting down with: Four red apples...etc

Author Unknown - Please share it with me if you know who it is by!