Apples, Apples, and More Apples

 We have dived into our theme of Apples during these past few weeks.  Below is a little peek into what we have accomplished during our theme study time.

Making Applesauce

Last Friday, we made applesauce using the apples we picked at Chapins.  We mixed all the ingredients and our applesauce cooked all day in the crockpot.  Boy did it smell good in our room!  After, as a class, we wrote a how-to piece on making applesauce.  We first listed our ingredients and then we listed the steps that we took to make the applesauce.  At the end of the day, we enjoyed some yummy, and sometimes sour, applesauce.

Celebrating Johnny Appleseed

Last Thursday was Johnny Appleseed's birthday!  For this celebration, we read a book about Johnny Appleseed that helped us learn who he was as a person.  We also completed an art project that had us drawing Johnny Appleseed through a guided drawing activity and creating an apple tree out of construction paper and tissue paper (the apples).

Diagram of an Apple

We have been reading a lot of books about apples.  Some of our books include diagrams of an apple, which is a great non-fiction feature to point out to the children and have them recreate!  For this project, the children got to decide if they wanted to have a green, yellow, or red apple for their diagram.  After some cutting and guidance, the children built their apple.  We then labeled the parts of an apple, which was a great vocabulary lesson as well!  The next time your child eats an apple, see if they can tell you the different parts.

Does an Apple Sink or Float?

This week during our science investigations, the children completed an experiment that had them finding out if an apple sinks or floats in water.  First, just like scientists, they made a prediction of what they thought would happen.  They drew their prediction in their science notebooks.  Next, we carried out the experiment and learned apples float!  After making observations about what we were noticing, the children went back to their science notebooks to draw their observations.

We were also curious to know if a rotten apple, a cut up apple, and the seeds would float as well.  Have your child tell you what each one did in the water.