Apples Galore!

For our school, we have decided to try going on a field trip each month and add in a fun unit study to our curriculum that corresponds with our field trip. This month we had the opportunity to visit an Apple Orchard as a field trip, so our unit study was on apples!

For each unit study we are going to start out with a "Know/Want to Know/Learned" sheet. It is basically a three columned paper in which we list the things we already know about our topic of study (apples are a fruit, they grow on trees, etc). Then we list things we would like to learn in our study. This was particularly interesting and fun to hear the boys perspective. (How do they make apple juice? How do you make an apple pie? How many different kinds of apples are there?) Daddy was excited that Luke added the "How to make an apple pie" to the list because Daddy loves Mommy's apple pie!

Then of course the last column at the end is all the things we learned in our study.

So here are some of our activities and projects for our apple study that helped us fill in our "Learned" column!

Of course no study of apples is complete without apple snacks! Here are a few of our favorites:

Whole apples. Yes, that was a favorite. We usually cut the apples up for the kids, but this month I let them choose a whole apple to have as a snack and they LOVED it! Who knew? Honeycrisp apples are our favorite, but we have had a hard time finding them this year. Pink Ladies and Braeburn are our next favorite varieties. We also enjoyed the simple snack of apples with slices of cheddar.

Another favorite was "Apple Smiles" made with apples slices, peanut butter and marshmallows, yum!



Our favorite apple dip is so simple to make! You mix one 8oz package of cream cheese with a small container of marshmallow creme and add cinnamon to taste. Yummy!
Gracie loved helping Mommy make this treat!


We also brought some yummy apple cider home from our orchard field trip. At the orchard they let us taste test their yummy Apple cider slushies (frozen cider essentially). Our home made ice cream maker makes great slushies, so we had apple cider slushies at home to let Daddy try this delicious treat!

Of course, the ultimate apple dessert, Apple Pie was a favorite! In fact when I asked the boys what their favorite part about our unit study was, the unanimous answer was "making apple pie"!



We put a yummy crunchy/oatmeal topping on our apple pie and then top it with some caramel sauce, crushed pecans, and vanilla ice cream!


Quite accomplished pie makers!!



For language arts we of course read all kinds of poems and books about apples. We love books, we love apples, we love books about apples. Here are a few of our favorites:
The Seasons of Arnold's Apple Tree- Gail Gibbons, Apples- Gail Gibbons, The Apple Pie Tree- Zoe Hall, and Johnny Appleseed- Reeve Lindbergh.

To go along with The Seasons of Arnold's Apple Tree book we made apple tree art projects for each season.





We also did a story sequence project on apple growth.



For math I found several apple themed worksheets online.




We used our apples for a review on patterns.





And used apple flashcards for number practice and review.



For some fun science we dissected several apples to see what they looked like from every direction.




We also studied some of the properties of water by guessing whether apples would sink or float and then testing our guesses with some apple bobbing! :) (the kids LOVED this!!!!)





For arts and crafts we:

Made apple "prints" (make sure to cut out a chunk of the apple on the back so it is easier to hold on to the apples!)



We made apple thumb print paintings with a poem




And of course we had our play dough of the month which was red and smelled like apple pie! (If ever there was a play dough that smelled good enough to eat, this one is it!!)

Here is Luke and Ben's play dough apple pie!




For the next post we will fill you in on our apple orchard field trip!