I’ve recently begun homeschool preschool lessons with Pooky. Our first unit was “A is for Apple.” You can see more of these theme activities here and here. One of our favorite books that we used with this theme was Ten Apples up on Top by Dr. Seuss.
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This is kind of a long book for Pooky to sit through, so I decided to bring it to life, so to speak. My hope was that it would keep her attention longer as well as give us a fun way to work on her counting skills.
Thanks to Pinterest, I came across this great diy tutorial for creating a quick and inexpensive felt board and knew that was what I wanted to use to make this book even more engaging. I put together a felt board almost as quickly as the tutorial suggests.
I also found these printables of characters from the book which Pooky helped to color. (I consider coloring to be a pre-writing exercise since it helps Pook practice her pencil grip.)
Next I cut the colored characters out and we took them and the book to the felt board along with some felt “apples” I cut out.
I read the first page and demonstrated how to use the cut outs to mimic the story. Then Pooky took over adding to our felt board after I read each page.
We continued through the book using this method of me reading and Pooky adding to the felt board.
This hands-on activity helped Pooky stay focused throughout the whole story.
And it gave us a LOT of counting practice!
We even counted the “apples” as we picked them up off the board to put them away.
I left the Ten Apples Up On Top activity out for a few days and would occasionally catch Pooky playing with it on her own trying to count. Love that!
You can see more apple theme tot school/preschool activities by following my Apple Theme board on Pinterest. There are also some great children’s book ideas on my Storybook Activities board.
And when you get tired of playing with apples, pull out some pumpkins with these activities.
Oh, I love this adorable craft and that is a fabulous book. Very interesting that Pooky kept going back on her own to interact with the board. Sounds like a winner with her too! Thanks for linking in the Kid Lit Blog Hop.
I definitely think it was a winner! Thanks for stopping by.
A very clever way to make a fun book even more fun!
Thank you! She certainly seemed to enjoy it.
What a fantastic book and craft. I love that you brought it to life for your daughter. Thanks for joining us on the Kid Lit Blog HOp
Thank you! And my pleasure. See you next time!
What a great counting activity. So fun for the kiddos. They are learning and don’t even know it!
and I love when I can help that happen! Thanks for stopping by.
Precious! I love this felt board idea!thx for linking it up to the Thoughtful Spot!
Thank you! We’re having fun with it. Always a pleasure. Thanks for stopping by.
Such a neat idea for little ones! I may just have to steal this for when we are learning math!!! Thanks for linking with us at Home Matters Linky party!
Please steal away! I love finding ways to make math fun. Thanks for stopping by!
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This is a great learning activity. I just wanted to let you know that I have a kids activities submission site and I am linking to this post if you don’t mind. You are welcome to submit your projects to my site if you’d like.
Looks like a great site, link away! I certainly may submit something in future. Thanks
This looks like so much fun! Thanks so much for sharing at Totally Terrific Tuesday! I hope you stop by to link up with us again this week. Remember the party starts tonight at 10pm!
Christie ~ Sparkles of Sunshine
Linked up! Thank you.
Thanks for sharing at the Intentional Parenting Link Party- this is such a cute idea! I love it!
Thank you! and thanks for stopping by.
What a great activity. I love how you found the cut outs and the felt is ingenious! I love this activity for counting, and I love how you used the book. Thanks so much for sharing on the #homeschoollinkup!
I’m glad you see the fun in it like we did. Thank you.
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Great counting activity for this classic story book. I love the use of felt and the DIY board too. Thanks for sharing on #ToddlerFunFriday
Thank you! Yes, we love playing with our felt board. Thanks for stopping by.