Some apples are yellow. An apple poem for toddlers. Receptive language activity.

 SOME APPLES ARE YELLOW

An apple poem for toddlers.

Receptive language.

Some apples are yellow

(Show a cut up yellow paper apple, or a real one)

Some apples are green

(Show a green one)

Most of them are red though

(Show a red apple) 

All apples are round

(Circle around an apple with your pointer finger)

All apples are sweet

(Lick your lips) 

They grow in a tree

(Make an open arms tree pose)

And fall to the ground

(Crouch down)

I pick one up

(Pretend to do so)

I wash it up

(Pretend)

I eat it up

(Pretend to eat an invisible apple)

Yum!

(Make a circle on your tummy, with an open hand)

I pick some more

(Pretend)

I bring them home

(Make a roof/triangle above your head with your hands)

One apple a day

(Show one pointer finger)

Keeps the doctor away.

(Bend down your fingers a few times  in a goodbye gesture)

How I set up the activity:

I do it during circle time, in advance I cut up a bunch of yellow, green and red apples, using construction paper.  I always give something to my students to manipulate at this time.  Sometimes it is one thing that they pass around and we sing "Good morning" to the one that holds it then I ask to pass it to his(her) neighbor.   This time I ask them to choose the color of the apple they want.

So I say : "Hey you", pointing to the child to my left, "what color of apple do you want" and show them because the youngest ones might not know their colors yet and can just point to one. "I'm giving a yellow apple (or whatever color they picked) to this boy/girl, who is this boy/girl?".  Then we sing "Good morning" to the child, then everyone. 

I keep one of each color for myself and tell the class that I have a new apple poem and when you hear the color of your apple lift it up to show it. I encourage everyone to stand up for it.

SOME  APPLES ARE YELLOW

Some apples are yellow 

(show the yellow apple)

Some apples are green

(show the green one)

Most of them are red though

 (show the red)

All apples are round 

(make a circle around one apple)

All apples are sweet

 (lick your lips)

They grow in a tree 

(make an open arms tree pose)

And fall to the ground 

(crouch down)

I pick one up 

(pretend to do so)

I wash it up 

(pretend)

I eat it up 

(pretend to eat an invisible apple)

Yum! 

(Make a circle on your belly with an open hand)

I pick some more

(pretend)

I bring them home 

( make a roof/triangle above your head, with your hands)

One apple a day

(show one pointer finger)

Keeps the doctor away 

(move fingers down for a goodbye gesture) 

There is so much learning in this activity.   The "Good morning" part with the names  and gender is excellent for social and sense of self, there's also some color recognition.  The main goal is receptive language ( I always do this kind of activity, three times.  It is the magic number with toddlers).  There's number one recognition and the "most" and "more" concepts for number operations, there's also a little bit of gross motor skills with the tree pose and the crouch down with all the different actions.  And there's symbolic representation with the paper apple for cognition.  I'm telling you, so much learning.

The following days I omit the last word of each phrase to let the children say it which becomes then expressive language. 

My kids (students) loved it. I woke up yesterday morning at 4 with this (I worked on it till 5) and was so pumped up about it all day. I feel I should share it with my fellow preschool teachers, so here it is.  I hope you and your students will enjoy it as much as we did.