Apples

There really are endless amounts of things you can learn, create, and eat that involve apples. I had to limit myself here so I didn't go overboard.   


 Books: Apples - Gail Gibbons; Johnny Appleseed - Steven Kellogg; How do Apples Grow? - Betsy Maestro. I don't have any of these books and had to reserve them at the library so you might need to do that as well.
Music: A.P.P.L.E. and Applesauce
Activity: Identify Parts of an Apple 
I found this easy diagram online to use.
Art: Tissue Paper Apple 
This is super easy. All you need to do is print this apple shape out on cardstock and then glue red, green, or yellow scraps of tissue paper.
Food: Homemade Applesauce. You might have your own recipe or like to tweak it a bit like I do. But you can never go wrong with Martha.
Film: Apple Dumpling Gang



We began the moving process right at the beginning of Apple week, so we took two weeks to learn about it. It ended up being perfect since there is so much you can do with apples. We had apple cider from the Fresh Market and. picked up some apple chips from the grocery store.

I never found the book Apples, but I did get How Do Apples Grow? and Johnny Appleseed. Both books are pretty long. How Do Apples Grow? was very informative and I even learned a lot, but if you aren't ready to talk about the reproductive system, skip those pages.

For our activity we identified the parts of the apple which we learned from the book.

I had to adapt this to each child to accommodate where there were at in their skills. For baby girl (almost 3) I cut the words and let her glue where they went. For my big boy (4 1/2) I let him write down the words and I was very impressed that he could copy the text.

The beginning of our applesauce making process.

We only had three apples so it was a small batch.

First, we cored and chopped the apples. If you want to peel them you can, I just didn't want to do all the work. Then we placed in a pot with 1/2 cup of water and 1 Tbsp of brown sugar. Boil for about 7 minutes or until soft. You could also add 1/4 tsp cinnamon or 1/4 cup of cranberries/raisins. In this case, my kids wanted to keep it simple.

Once soft, I mashed the apples with a potato masher right in the pot. This will leave it really chunky which I liked because the kids could still identify bits of apple and skin. If you want a smooth texture just toss it in your blender.

After it cooled, we immediately sampled and decided it was perfect. 

We will for sure be making more this fall.

Our art activity was a nice and calm one. I found these tissue paper squares at Michael's that were ready to use and all I had to do was print out the apple paper. I assigned myself to glue patrol and added glue to the kids pages as they put the tissue paper on. My type A boy wanted to make his apple exactly like red delicious, it was all red with a green leaf and perfectly in the lines. My creative girl at first wanted hers to be purple and pink, but I steered her back to the three colors of apples we learned about. I guess I need to stop stifling her creativity. Regardless, they both turned out beautifully and displayed their personalities perfectly.