Johnny Appleseed Book Companion March Preschool Kindergarten 1st 2nd Special Ed

About this resource

One theme, one week. Read a Johnny Appleseed story every day at circle time (any author or

edition — it's a public-domain folk tale), and pull one simple activity after the read-aloud each

day — sort, count, find the letter, get ready for an apple snack, then build a craft. Every

student page has one short instruction with a picture, so a paraprofessional can run the room

from it too.

This theme pairs with any Johnny Appleseed book you already have. No specific edition or author

is named here or in the file; nothing from any story is reproduced.

EVERYTHING INSIDE (57 pages)

• 1 Start Here week plan: what to do after the read-aloud each day, plus what else it practices
• 1 book-and-words page (naming the read-aloud only as "a Johnny Appleseed story, any author or

edition"), an original circle-time chant ("Seeds That Grow," written for this unit — no song or

story text is reprinted), and the 9 circle-time vocabulary words

• 9 smartboard slides for whole-group circle time on a projector or interactive board: name the

pictures, sort, count (3 slides), the letter hunt, the life skill in order, and the core word

• 9 circle-time vocabulary cards to cut out and use at the carpet (apple, tree, seed, leaf,

basket, sun, rain, ladder, worm)

• Day 1, Sort (apple thing or not?), at 3 levels: Level 1 errorless matching, Level 2 the

standard two-group sort, Level 3 a third group added (apple thing, animal, or toy) — 10

cut-and-glue pieces on every level

• Day 2, Count and glue the number, at 3 levels: Levels 1 and 2 count 1–5 (5 rows, a 5-piece

numeral strip to cut and glue); Level 3 counts 6–10 and writes the number, no cutting

• Day 3, Letter A, at 3 levels: Level 1 glues 5 matching A's, Level 2 finds A among 10

look-alike letters, Level 3 says 10 pictures aloud and glues the 5 that start with the /a/

sound

• Writing, at 3 levels: Level 1 traces the big letters, Level 2 traces letters and the word,

Level 3 writes the letters and the word independently on primary lines

• Day 4, a life-skill sequencing page: 5 picture pieces (4 real steps to wash and eat an apple

snack, first/next/then/last, plus 1 that does not belong)

• Day 5, a book craft, build an apple tree: 7 pieces of our own coloring-book line art to color

and cut on straight dashed lines (a big apple tree, 4 apples with stems and leaves, a friendly

worm and a picking basket), a color model of the finished craft, and a line-art orchard scene

(fence, trees, sun) to glue it onto

• 2 fine motor pages: a tracing-paths page (4 dashed paths from a worm to an apple: straight,

wave, zigzag, loops) and a cutting-practice page (4 strips, easiest first)

• 4 core-word pages for the word of the week, "fast": a big word card for the talker or core

board, a 12-word find-and-circle grid (6 of the 12 are the target word, "slow" is one of the

distractors), a basket to color, and 10 fruits to cut and glue onto it

• 1 "Who Did What This Week" data page (one row per student, a prompt-level code for each day —

handy for IEP notes and progress reports)

• 1 family letter to send home on Day 1
• 1 credits page (art and font licenses)
• Ink-saver twins of 19 picture-based student pages (the craft and pure-coloring pages are color-only) in outline art for a

photocopier, so the color pages above are optional, not required

Three Levels On Every Academic Task

Sort, count, letters and writing each come in three levels, marked with a small shape instead of

a number so children don't compare theirs to a neighbor's: a circle for starting (errorless

matching), a square for building (the standard task), a triangle for ready for more (a real step

up — a third sort group, 6–10 counting with writing, or beginning sounds).

Cutting Built For Small Hands

Every cutting page carries 5 or more pieces, lined up edge to edge so each cut is one straight

line. Pre-cut them yourself for students who are not cutting independently yet.

Color Or Ink-Saver

Print the color pages, or use the ink-saver twins at the back on a photocopier — most

picture-based student pages have both (the craft and pure-coloring pages are color-only by design).

Who This Is For

Any teacher starting a self-contained preschool or early childhood special education classroom

who wants a whole week of circle time, ready to pull and go: one theme, a different simple

activity every day.

What This Is, And What It Is Not

A print-and-go weekly theme unit built around an apples-and-trees theme. It is not a claim about

any student's age, diagnosis, or rate of progress, and it does not reproduce any book, its text,

or its artwork — no character art is drawn here, only our own generic pictures (an apple, a tree,

a worm, a basket).