Ten Apples Up on Top

Using books as play provocations

Ten Apples Up on Top is a firm favourite, even more so since we found this amazing version in the style of Jason Mraz!

It also proved to be a great provocation or invitation to play. The book is all about balancing increasing numbers of apples - how many could we balance?

Apple stacking

There was so much language development involved here, from counting the number of apples to describing their features such as size, shape, and colour. Mathematical language involving positioning, balance and more was also explored.

Having established that we could stack five apples, if we arranged them in a certain position, the question then turned to what else we could stack. It was interesting to observe that easily stackable objects weren’t even considered. There was no mention of blocks, books or any other regularly shaped objects. Instead, a range of seed pods and stones found their way to the table.

After much play and exploration, we found that stones were easy to stack if the larger ones were placed at the bottom. The gumnuts were the most difficult as they are so irregularly shaped but eventually a decent sized stack was produced. The tiny gumnuts were the easiest to stack in some ways, but involved lots of very careful hand eye coordination and fine motor movements.

There are many benefits to this type of play. Stacking play helps develop language, fine motor skills, and exploration of early maths concepts such as geometry, problem-solving, and cause and effect. It’s also a great introduction to goal setting and working to achieve a set goal as children aim to make a stack of a certain height and work to achieve that. There’s plenty of room for discussing that our early failures can actually help us to achieve our final goal. This activity could be modified for older children by adding other objects such as skewers to see if they can engineer taller stacks.

Do you have a favourite book that involves stacking objects? Share it below!