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Apples

by Greg Smedley-Warren September 16, 2022 2 comments

It’s apple pickin’ time! (No really…it needs to hurry up and be apple picking time because I’m over the heat and humidity!) I’m super excited to share our apple fun with you! We learn about apples…we make graphic organizers…we label and learn vocabulary…we cook…we paint…we eat apples and we have an apple party!!!

Apples Research Project!

We use our Apples Research Project for our apple unit!

All of our research projects start with a schema map.

This is our very first schema map of the year!!! We did our schema (What our brains already know about apples) and then we added new learning as the week went on. We also addressed any misconceptions we had about apples!

Graphic Organizers

Graphing organizers are where we record our learning from our research. Our research happens with our read-alouds and videos. As we read and watch videos, we add to our graphic organizers. We’re meeting science standards, ELA standards, learning vocabulary, and building language with our graphic organizers.

The true-false sort is a great ending lesson for any of our research projects. This activity requires students to use critical thinking skills and higher-order thinking to apply what they’ve learned. We have to decide if the statement is true or false and then we have to explain our thinking!

Apple Math!

We do apple math! We read Ten Apples Up On Top! Then we drew an apple from the bag and we had to put that many apples on our head!

Ya’ll I’ve done this for years and this year is my favorite. I’ve used all kinds of apples…even made my own apple stickers. This year I bought these apple stickers from Teacher Created Resource and BAM! Love how it turned out!

Apple Prints

We did apple prints. Of course. It’s a requirement.
If you’re doing apple week, you must do apple prints!

Now ya’ll know I love me a good mess. But people, apple prints can be INSANELY messy!

BUT if you pop a fork into the apples for handles…no mess. The apple prints were so clean and fun and no stress!!! BRILLIANT!

Apples Treats!

And of course, we ate a lot of apple treats!

We made applesauce! The kids do the peeling and cutting with plastic knives. Then we add sugar, cinnamon, apple juice, and water! We let our applesauce cook all day and we eat it and love it!

We taste apples and graph our favorite!

Apple Party

We also have an apple party! This is always so fun. The kids love trying different foods and seeing their reactions are priceless.

For our apple party we have: apples, applesauce, apple juice, apple cider, apple chips, apple butter and Apple Jacks.

Students get all of the food. We taste each food one at a time by taking one bite/drink. It’s a tasting party.

As we taste the food, we mark our preference by circling the correct apple face!

Finally, we graph our favorite apple food!

Apple STEM

We also incorporate an apple science experiment and STEM project into our apple unit!

For science, we predict if an apple would sink or float. Then we conduct our experiment and write about our results!

To incorporate apples STEM, we use apples and toothpicks and challenge the students to build the tallest apple tower they can build. They work in pairs to build their towers and then draw and write about their tower.

These science and STEM activities came from our Seasons Of Arnold’s Apple Tree Read It Up! resource!

Apple Centers!

And we even did apple hippopotamuses/centers!

These are found in our Apples Research Project!

Sensory Bin!

We have made our sensory bin with apple-scented rice, we have used oats and sparkly red balls and we have used red and green pom-poms for our sensory bins!

Click the picture to see how I made our sensory bin with PVC pipe!

Recipe: rice, red food coloring, apple pie spice! Add rice and a red food coloring to a ZipLoc bag. Shake! When it’s red enough, add in apple pie spice and a few drops of water. Shake! Add more food coloring if desired!

Repeat with green food coloring!

These are from our Emoji Letters & Sounds Bundle!

The apples in our above math sensory bin are from Smashing’ Apples Numbers And Counting!

Check out our Apple Research Project which is where all of our activities and centers are from!

Apple Freebies!

Click the image below to get your FREE Emergent Reader and poem!

Apple Resources

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Greg Smedley-Warren

Howdy, I am Mr. Greg. I have been teaching for 11 years. I spent a year teaching fifth grade, two years in second grade and am now in my 9th year in Kindergarten. Kindergarten is my passion and my calling but honestly, that wasn’t how it started. Read the whole story >

Schedulin Sunday: Last Stop On Market Street, Counting, And Apples

2 comments

Stacy Rose September 22, 2022 at 11:40 am

I love the Apple Research Project Unit you created. Are you selling just the recording sheet for the Apple Party only? Thank you.

Jason Warren October 4, 2022 at 10:55 am

It’s only available as a whole product. We don’t have it split out by activity.