Apple Week

Our Apple Week starts soon after we take our annual Field Trip to the pumpkin patch. While we are on that trip, in addition to buying a number of gourds and various types of squash, we also buy a variety of different types of apples. (Daum’s pumpkin patch and fruit stand, in West Salem, makes and sells Apple Cider, so the class gets to observe apple cider being made, and to taste hot apple cider as we transition from pumpkins and gourds into apples.)
We brainstorm a list of all the ways that people use and enjoy apples. We get out all of our apple books (I have collected quite a few!) and read about apple trees and apple orchards.
Before the day that we make apple sauce, we invite each student to bring in an apple or two from home. Students get to weigh their apple in “bears.” They draw their apples, and predict how many seeds their apple will have inside. We cut one of the apples to show them the star inside because some of them have never seen an apple cut this way.
On applesauce cooking day, each student works with an adult to cut their apple, or to slice it with an apple corer. They get to put their own apple pieces into the pot. After they are cooked, each student gets to turn the handle and watch the warm apples go through the strainer while separating out the seeds, peels, and stems. Each student adds one teaspoon of sugar to the mix. Occasionally, a parent will bring dried apples for snack during this week and the class gets to try those, too. Sometimes we dry out an apple to observe the changes.
We add apple poems and chants to our I Can Read notebooks. We sing the
A-P-P-L-E song (another I Can Read page) After our study, each child dictates a favorite fact about apples to me (while I am at the computer) and we make a quick class book which we illustrate using photos like the ones on this page. Even at the end of the year the students all remember how to spell apple!