It’s apple pickin’ time and September is the perfect month for apple activities! September 26th is Johnny Appleseed’s birthday so we celebrate apples all month long with our Apples Research Project!
Apple Activities: Apples Research Project!
We use our Apple Research Project for our Apple unit!
This is our very first schema map of the year!!! We do our schema (What our brains already know about apples), and then we add new learning as the research project goes on. We also address any misconceptions we have about apples!
Kindergarten Apple Activities: 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.
We study the life cycle of apples and label the parts of an apple. One of the hallmarks of our research projects is the focus on explicit vocabulary instruction. Part of this vocabulary instruction is labeling, where we learn the parts of apples, how those parts are used, and how they benefit the apple.
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!
Students record their learning and writing in their Apples Research Project journal!
Johnny Appleseed Day
We celebrate Johnny Appleseed Day by learning about John Chapman! We even label Johnny Appleseed. And …he did not wear a pot on his head…sad but true!
Apple Activities: 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 heads!
Apple Activities: Apple Art Projects
Apple prints are a must when studying apples! We love this project because it’s a great art lesson but also a great messy lesson! Pro tip: stick forks into your apples to make a handle and eliminate slippery apples and paint from flying all over the classroom!
Paper plate apples! We use our paint sticks to make these fun paper plate apples!
Torn paper apples! Torn paper projects are a must for our kids fine motor skills!
Apple Activities: Apple Snack Ideas
Of course, we ate a lot of apple treats! Making apple snacks is great for sequencing, vocabulary and building language!
We make 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 Pie In A Cup! Graham crackers, apple pie filling, Cool Whip, and cinnamon!
Graham cracker square, red frosting, a pretzel snapped in half, and green baking chocolate snapped in half.
Apple Activities: Apple Party
We also have an apple party! This is always so fun, and 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 take at least one bite or one sip of each food. On their recording sheet they document if they like the food or not.
And then we graph our favorite apple food and share why we chose our favorite1
Apple Phonics Project
Our phonics projects are always a hit with the kids. They love creating their projects to see how much they know. I love that it’s a fun way to get some assessment data and that I can differentiate the skills so ALL STUDENTS can be successful. These phonics projects include letters/sounds, CVC words, and sight words. They’re also editable, so you can include any skill! And they make a great Apple bulletin board or Apple hallway display!
Apple Activities: The Seasons Of Arnold’s Apple Tree
We read the book The Seasons Of Arnold’s Apple Tree and use our Read It Up! resource to build reading comprehension skills and incorporate STEM activities!
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.
Apple Activities: Apple Sensory Bins
We have made our sensory bin with apple-scented rice, oats, sparkly red balls, and red and green pom-poms for our sensory bins!
This sensory bin is made with chick peas that dyed red with food coloring. We added our Apple Emoji Cards for letters and sounds practice.
Red and green pom poms!
Rice is also a great sensory bin filler. We color the rice red, green, and yellow and add fake apples. You can also mix in apple pie seasoning to make your sensory bin scented!
We also use oats for an apple sensory bin!
Apple Resources:
Apple Activities: FREEBIES
For more ideas and resources, check out these blog posts:
