apples

Well – I’m back!  After a ton of computer issues over the past week – I’m finally back online and back on my blog!  This week we started our unit on Farms.  At the start of our farm unit I always like to do a couple days on apples – because they are being harvested this time of year and because most children are familiar with the fruit.

I teach all the different parts of the apple:  the skin, the core, the seeds, the flesh, and the stem.  We cut them open and look at the different parts.  We smell apples.  We touch them.  We taste them.  I buy red, yellow, and green apples and we compare their tastes, smells, textures, and appearances.  When we’re done, we graph which apple we liked the best and then compare those results.  We count which color had the most people like it and which color had the least.

We sing songs about apples.  We read books about how apples grow and about orchards.  We sequence the life of an apple tree – from seed, to full-grown tree.  And we make apple prints with red, yellow, and green paint to match the color of our apples.  I don’t usually do art with food – it makes me feel guilty because I feel it’s a waste – but every so often I make an exception.

Apple days in my class are always fun for everyone – and it’s a good way to lead in our farm unit!  🙂