The theme of the week for this class has been apples. I happen to be a huge fan of all the fun things you can do with apples so I enjoy stopping by to see what the children are doing.
This was day two of their apple making project so as you can see in the photo above, the children had already painted their apples and now it was time to lace them up.
Lacing can be quite a challenging prospect. At first the children were having a little trouble pushing the yarn through the little holes. The yarn  was fraying at the ends or getting tangled up on the stem of the apples.
So we decided it might be a bit easier if we added a “needle” to the end of the yarn and shorten the length of the yarn up just a bit so it wouldn’t get so tangled. For us, a “needle” is simply wrapping a piece of tape around the end of the yarn.
Now the children began to have much more success at lacing up their apples. Before the apples were laced all the way up, we stopped to stuff them with newspaper.
The children ripped up the paper and then rolled it into small balls to push into the opening of their apples.
Then we finished lacing and tied the yarn at the end.
Ideas can always seem so simple when you look at them in writing or in a book or online and then the real test comes when you put the ideas into action in the classroom. Â What we learned from this activity was how to make sure we allowed plenty of time to complete each phase of the activity.
Phase 1: tracing and cutting
Phase 2: Painting
Phase 3: Lacing and stuffing
The pre-k class had no problem completing each phase because we gave them the time.
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