Ten Apples Up On Top

Today was Read Across America Day, the day celebrated around beloved children's book author Dr. Seuss' birthday. It was also another snow day in my hometown, so instead of wearing pajamas to school, reading Dr. Seuss books and making red and white striped hats, I wore my pajamas at home, read Ten Apples Up On Top to my kids and did a counting activity.

Ten Apples Up On Top is a fun rhyme about a lion, tiger and dog who take turns doing things with various numbers of apples on top of their heads. When they finally reach ten apples up on top, the lady tries to knock them off with a mop. This is a silly read with lots of basic sight words and counting fun.

After reading the book, I thought it would be fun to practice sequencing numbers and counting to ten. So I used an apple juice lid and drew ten circles on a piece of red construction paper to be the apples. Then I wrote the numbers from 1-10 in random order.

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My son happily cut them out, between snow days and illness he has missed quite a bit of school lately and although he would never admit it, I can tell he misses it. I asked him if he wanted to do a project today and he was sitting at the kitchen table before I even had the materials together.

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While my son cut, I cut ten apples, with no numbers, out for my two year old daughter. I don't let her cut yet, but she LOVES to make things. I drew the outline of a head and shoulders at the bottom of two pieces of easel paper and before gluing the apples on the head, had my kids decorate the faces.

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After decorating, I helped my daughter glue her apples on top of the head. She's just learning how to use a glue stick. She's really good at smearing the glue on, but doesn't quite get the concept of turning the glue side over to stick it to the paper. My son had to glue his numbers in order from 1-10. So he had to first find the number that came next and then glue it down in order.

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After gluing, I had them each touch each apple and count to ten. Okay, I had to help my daughter touch and count, but she's eager to learn.

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Here are the finished products.

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