Apples

We have just finished up our apple unit and we wanted to share with you some of the various activities we completed. Before we launched into our apple study, I asked the children to share what they were wondering about apples.  Below is a list of what they shared.

• Are there orange apples?
• I wonder why apples grow on trees and not on bushes.
• How do they fall off the tree in the fall?
• How do bee's suck the flower to help grow the apples?
• Are there yellow apples?
• I wonder why flowers turn into apples.
• Why do worms live in apples?
• Why are apples high in the tree? 

During out study of apples, we learned about Johnny Appleseed through a short video and book.  The children completed a guided drawing activity that had them drawing Johnny Appleseed.  They also created an apple tree using construction paper.  The final touches to this art project was having them write a fact about apples.

We made some yummy applesauce from the apples that were picked during our field trip. A majority of the class really enjoyed the applesauce, which they helped prepare by cutting up the apples and adding the ingredients to the crock pot.

We also went out to the apple trees near the buses and make observations about what we were noticing with the trees.  The children drew their observations in their science notebooks.

We were also wondering if apples sank or floated when placed in water.  After we made our predictions, we completed our experiment.  We learned that apples floated, which some of us were very surprised about.  We even tested out a smaller apple, a banana, and a coin.  We came to the conclusion that it doesn't matter the size of an object to determine if it floats or sinks in water.

The children recorded their conclusions in their science notebooks.

At one of the small tables in the classroom, an open-ended question was proposed: Can you make a scientific drawing of an apple?  The children had an opportunity to observe an apple, draw it on paper and then use watercolors to paint their picture.