Extending Learning {Apples Pt. 3}

For our last part of extending learning through apples, we are exploring ways to include apples in art and play at home.

In case you missed the other 2 parts, here they are.
Extending Learning {Apples Pt. 1} - Ways to include apples in Language Arts and Recipes
Extending Learning {Apples Pt. 2} - Ways to include apples in Math and Science

Art

    -Draw an apple
Have your student observe an apple and then draw it as carefully as they can.

here are three ways to draw an apple.

     -Make a Contour Drawing
Have your student draw the apple as they follow its shape with their eyes, but instruct them not to look at what they are drawing--they must keep their eyes on the apple while they are drawing.  Explain that a contour drawing may not look much like the model; it is an exercise in seeing.

here is a video to illustrate how to make a contour drawing of an apple

     -Work with Apple Colors
Show examples of many different colored apples.  Include a green Granny Smith, a yellow Golden Delicious, a striped Jonathan, or a spotted Red Delicious.  Provide paints, water, brushes, paper towels, and sheets of paper.  Ask your student to fold his/her paper into fourths and duplicate the colors of each apple in each section of their paper by mixing paints.

here is an example of how they might experiment with mixing colors

     -Try to Produce a Still Life Picture
Tell your student that, in painting, a still life is a picture of inanimate objects, such as fruit, flowers, or food.  Show them a copy of Cezanne's Apples.  Set up an arrangement of apples and have your student use markers, crayons or paints to apply color to their drawing.

Cezanne's Apples

here is an example of works by children

and another example here

     -Playdoh Apples
Have your student sculpt an apple from playdoh.  Have them add details such as a leaf or a stem.

here is an example, along with a recipe for apple spice scented playdoh

     -Make an apple collage
Have your student collect strips of red, green, or yellow scrapbook paper.  Then have them collage those pieces together to make an apple.

here is an example with tutorial

     -Make an Apple Ad
Help your student to pick out a product made by Apple.  Then, help them brainstorm ways to promote that product.  Have them get creative and come up with a slogan and poster to promote that product.  Make sure they use the Apple logo in their ad.

photo credit here

     -Make Tissue Paper Apple Trees
Younger students will enjoy making an apple tree.  Have your student draw a tree trunk with a brown crayon on a sheet of paper.  Then let them tear several shades of green tissue paper into small 'leaves'.  After they glue the leaves above the trunk, give them red tissue paper to glue on for apples.

here is an example along with a tutorial

     -Make Apple Sun Catchers
Have your student use tissue paper and contact paper to make a sun catcher for their own window.

here is an example along with a tutorial

     -Make Apple Prints
Cut apples in half two ways, from the stem down and across the middle of the apple.  Cut one apple into quarters.  Provide red, yellow, and green paint along with sheets of colored construction paper, drawing paper, and tissue paper.  Have your student dip the cut side of the apple pieces in the paint and make prints on their papers.  By using an apple repeatedly until the paint is trasnferred to the paper, your student will get an interesting series of prints that gets lighter and lighter.  Or by overlapping colors with separate prints, your student will create interesting new colors and patterns.  Encourage your student to experiment.

here is an example

here is another example

and here are some tips to make apple printing more enjoyable

     -Make a Dried Apple Sculpture
This is a project for older students because it involves carving with a paring knife.  You will need an apple, a paring knife, a bowl of lemon juice, and a length of string.  HAve your student peel their apples, leavin ght estem and a circl eof peel around the sem.  Have them  carve a face in their apple.  Their carvings can include a mouth, nose, eyes, chin, cheeks, and ears.  Don't let them make any of the cuts too deep.  The carved areas will look deeper as the apples dry.  After your student is done carving, have them dip their apple in the lemon juice to prevent discoloration.  If you want to, you can let the apples soak in the lemon juice for an hour.  Next, have your student tie a length of string to their apple and hang it in a warm, dry place.  It will take about a month for the apple to dry and shrink.  (If your student cannot wait that long, you can speed the process up by drying their apple in a slow oven at 100 degrees for 5 hours, then hang them to dry for about a week.)

go here to see the progression of this man's apple sculptures

Play
*Disclaimer* - Older students will play 'too cool' for games and songs.  The only way to get them involved sometimes is to be goofy and play with them!  Younger students have no problems getting silly.  :)  Decide what your child will want to do, and go from there.  If all else fails, you can let them play the iPad...that's an apple right?  :)

Games

     -Musical Apples
This will need to be played as a group.  Everyone sits on the floor in a circle.  Give one person a red apple and another person a green or yellow apple.  Play a favorite recording.  As long as the music plays, everyone passes the apples clockwise around the circle.  When the music stops, the two people who are holding the two apples must stand.  The one holding the red apple must walk once around the outside of the circle.  The one holding the other apple must walk twice around the circle.  They then return to the circle to pass the apples around as soon as the music begins again.  Other variations include: eliminating the people left holding the apples, or asking whoever is holding the apple to state a fact about apples before continuing.

     -"Red Apple, Stop"
Play this game outside with a group of people.  You will need two apples - a red apple and a green apple.  Have everyone line up shoulder to shoulder as they would for a race.  Choose on person to be the leader, and position him or her a good distance away from the other people, but facing them.  Explain that when the leader holds up the green apple, that is a signal to run.  When the leader holds up a red apple, that is a signal to stop immediately, to 'put on the brakes.'  The leader should call out, "Green apple, go!" when he/she holds up the green apple.  He/she should call, "Red apple, stop!" when the red apple is held up.  There are no winners in this game, only the fun of participating.

     -"Grow, Apple Seed, Grow"
This is another group game.  Have students sit in a circle.  Choose one student to be 'it'.  They will close their eyes while an apple seed{a brown pom pom} is given to one person in the circle.  All students in the circle will then pretend to be holding the seed behind their back.  Then 'it' will look around and try to guess who is hiding the apple seed.  When they guess they will walk over to that student and pretend to 'water' them while saying 'grow, apple seed, grow.'  If that student has the seed they will grow like a tree...if they don't, they will sit still.  Give 'it' 3 guesses to find the apple seed.

     -"Who Took the Apple from the Apple Tree"   
This is played like 'who took the cookies from the cookie jar.'  All players close their eyes and the teacher/parent gives a small apple to one of the players.  Once they have hidden it away all players put their hands in their laps and open their eyes.  Start by singing, 'who took the apple from the apple tree?', then guess someone singing, 'johnny took the apple from the apple tree', if johnny doesn't have the apple, he holds up his hands and sings, 'who me?...couldn't be.'  Then everyone sings, 'then who?'  Keep guessing each other until you find the person who has the apple.  Then that person will sing, 'Who me?...Yes, me!' revealing the apple.

     -Hidden Apples
Cut out several different apples from construction paper, or use real apples, or manipulatives.  Hide the apples in 1 or 2 rooms in the house/classroom.  Have your student locate all of the apples.  You can use hot/cold clues if they need additional help.  For younger students, use large apples, for older students make the apples much smaller.
 
     -Apple Finger Puppets
Have your student color and cut out the finger puppets from the page below.  Glue or staple them so that they will make a loop around your student's fingers.  They can then act out songs, books, plays, or be creative in their own way with them.

click here for download

Songs

Apples and Bananas

Sippin' Cider

 

Ten Apples Up On Top

If I Were an Apple

 

Picking Apples

Hope you have had so much FUN with apples this month!

Valerie

Extending Learning {Apples Pt. 2}

I hope you have had a chance to use some of the ideas and suggestions for extending learning with apples from last week's post.

If you haven't read that one, check it out here.

This week I want to give you some ideas to extend the learning in the areas of math and science using apples.  Just a reminder, Johnny Appleseed Day is the 26th of this month. 

Math
    
     -Count Apples
Using either real apples or manipulatives(things that kids can manipulate for the purpose of learning a mathematical concept) to have your child count.  These can be erasers, apple post-it notes, hand drawn apples on pieces of paper, pom poms, beads, or apple manipulatives.  Practice counting by ones, fives, tens, and if you want to challenge your older student, by threes.  Have your student count the apples and write down the number or match it to a numbered flash card.

you can have your student fill out an apple ten frame after counting

     -Look at Symmetry
Cut an apple in half from top to bottom.  Have your student observe the halves to see if they are the same size and shape.  Have your student notice if there are areas of symmetry and asymmetry.

after checking their apple for symmetry, have them draw a symmetrical apple of their own

     -Do Apple Fractions
Give your student a whole apple.  Ask them what they would do if a friend wanted to share with them.  They would want to cut it in half.  Then ask them how they would divide the apple between 4 people, 8 people, 12 people.  Help your younger student to cut the apple into these fractions.  Older students could cut the apples themselves.

check out this book for more fun

     -Estimate and Count Apple Seeds
Have your student estimate how many seeds will be found within an apple.  After they have made their best guess, have them(or you) cut the apple in half and spoon out the seeds.  Count the seeds and see how close(far) their estimate was from the actual count.

here is an example

     -Sell Apples (or Apple Treats) at an Apple Stand
What better way to teach your student about money?  Help your student make apple treats to sell and set up a stand, much like a lemonade stand.  Have them price items and practice making change for many denominations of money.  If you do not want to have an actual stand with real product, you can play pretend with selling apples.  Have your student price their manipulatives and play with funny money.

photo credit here

     -Weigh an Apple
Using a food scale, weigh multiple apples.  Record the weights.  Determine which is the heaviest, lightest, and in between.  Ask your student to figure out the average weight of an apple.  Once they have figured out the average weight, ask your student to figure out how many apples it takes to make a pound of apples.

photo credit here

     -A Bushel and a Peck
This one is interesting for students that are not aware of this unit of measurement.  A peck of apples is about 11 apples.  There are 4 pecks in a bushel.  Have your student determine how many apples would be in a bushel.  How many in 3, 4, or 10 bushels.

photo credit here

   -Make an Apple Graph
Have your student take a poll of their friends and family members to discover which type of apple is their favorite(red delicious, granny smith, jonagold).  Once they have tallied all of their answers, instruct them to make a graph using their data.  They can make a bar graph, pie graph, or a pictograph.  Each tally can be represented in 1 to 1 correspondence in the graph or 2 to 1 correspondence.

here is an example of a bar graph

here is an example of a pie graph

here is an example of a pictograph

here is a downloadable form for your student to use

     -Apple Sticker Math
 Using apple stickers, have your student make up math problems for you to solve.  For example, they may put 3 stickers + 2 stickers = ?, and you would need to fill in the answer.  Your student may choose to do addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division.

here is an example

Games

PreK - 2

Apple Tree Math Game-Could be used for counting or one to one correspondence

Apple Tree Addition Game-Use this game with addition flash cards

Apple Fractions File Folder Game-This has a free download to practice fractions

Apple Addition File Folder Game-Another free download for simple addition

Simple Apple Addition-A fun hands-on approach to solving simple addition equations

Apple Patterns and Sorting-Use apple cutouts

Appleseed Clip Counting-Helpful for little ones practicing counting and number recognition

Pick an Apple-Using a tree and pony beads you can get your student counting to win

Cardboard Tube Apple Games-Your student will practice fine motor skill as they make the trees themselves

Apple Tree Playdoh Math-Teaches your student subitising(click link to learn more)

Candy Apple Tree Sorting and Counting-Using candy helps any student learn

Apple Tree Math-Great for use with multiple students with different levels of learning

3-6

Bushel of Apples and Fill Your Basket Games-All you need are dice to play these games

Apple Tree Math-Great for use with multiple students with different levels of learning

Be sure to check out 3 Dinosaur's Amazing {and FREE} apple packs.  They are loaded with printable activities and games to go along with everything apple related.  They are geared more toward the lower grades, though some students in upper grades would still enjoy them.  Please make sure to scroll all the way to the bottom of this page to access the downloads.  Don't click on the download button to the right...it is an ad.  {Sometimes these ads on download pages make me crazy!!} Really great stuff though!

Science
     -Make an Apples for Each Season Poster
Your student can look at the life cycle of an apple tree by illustrating how an apple tree appears in each season of the year, winter, spring, summer, and fall.    There is a variety of ways of showing the season poster.

here is an example

or you could complete this sheet here

     -Make an Apple Clock or Time Line
Another way to show the life cycle of an apple tree is to show the progression from seed to apple.  You and your student can illustrate and discuss how an apple tree grows.

here is an example

     -Make an Apple Science Dictionary
Let your student make a list of new science words as you study apples.  Words may include sepal, calyx, petal, pollen, pollinate, nectar, bud, fruit, glucose, and many more.  Then your student may make a dictionary using index cards with definitions for each word.

you can buy this dictionary here

     -Plant an Apple Seed
Your student may want to try and sprout an apple seed.  To give it a try, you will need to mimic a cold winter period for the seed.  Apple seeds won't sprout until they have rested through a cold winter period.  To simulate that period, you and your student will need to put the apple seeds in the fridge for 6 weeks.  To sprout the seeds, put them in a tray of moist sand inside a plastic bag or between layers of moist paper towels.  Keep them cool and moist until they sprout.  It may take six more weeks!  When tiny roots and tiny shoots emerge, plant the apple seeds in soil and watch the apple tree grow and produce leaves.  It will take 15 years to produce fruit from your apple seed.

follow along with this 'nutty' family as they grow their own apple trees

If you don't want to make the big time investment, and you have room in your yard, you could plant an apple tree from your local nursery.  We have an apple tree in our yard and if you have the room, it is a wonderful investment.  I love looking out the window and seeing my kids picking apples for a snack.  :)

here is information to get you started

     -Have a Taste Test
Let your student compare a number of different apples by tasting them.  Give them a small slice of each apple along with a glass of water.  Have your student taste each variety, rinsing their mouths with water between tastes.  Ask them to make notes about the tastes and textures by writing in a journal.  You could remind your student that the taste buds for sweetness are at the tops of the tounges, and the taste buds for tartness are at the sides of our tongues.  Together decide on adjectives to describe each variety of apple. 

here is an example of doing a taste test with your student

     -Test Your Senses
Once you have completed the taste test.  Have your student chart the apples, marking whether they were sweet, tart, crispy, or soft.  Once they have viewed the information, blindfold your student and have them taste each apple again.  Can they guess which apple just by taste?  Next, have them blindfolded and hold their noses.  How do they do now?  You can try and trick your student by giving them a slice of potato as well.  With their noses closed, they may have a hard time telling apart raw potato from raw apple.

here is an example

     -Observe an Apple
Give your student an apple and a copy of the activity sheet below.  Have your student answer the first five questions on the sheet.  Then cut their apple in half and have them answer the last two questions.  Next, your student can draw a realistic picture of the apple and print the variety name next to it.

download here

Apple Science and Math Center Booklet

Here is a free printable of a Science and Math Center that can be used at home or in the classroom.  Work through each section of the book and have your student mark the book with notes and observations as you move along.

download here

Come back next week for the final part of our Extending Learning Apples Edition, Art and Play!

Extending Learning {Apples Pt.1}

This month we celebrate Johnny Appleseed Day.

Now, listen.  No holiday is insignificant when you are teaching school.  If you see a holiday approaching, you start pulling out all of your books and files pertaining to that holiday and you insert learning and fun into your schedule.  Some of these holidays I really didn't even remember existing until I started teaching school.

So now you know, Johnny Appleseed Day is this month...the 26th to be exact.

To help you extend the learning this month, we will be focusing on apples.  A common fruit that is in abundance during the fall.  Today we will be focusing on Language Arts and some yummy Recipes.

Reading

Here is a list of books to possibly check out for reading practice and applied learning pertaining to apples.  Some of these books have links to sites with lesson plans and activities to go along with them.  Don't feel you need to do all of these books.  Pick one for the month.  Or if you are overly ambitious maybe two or three.

These are divided by grade, however, you may find that some books would work great for all ages and others may not hold the attention of a 6th grader.  Each child is different.  If none of these will work, go to your local library and do a keyword search for 'apples' or 'johnny appleseed'.

K-2

Johnny Appleseed by Steven Kellogg link

Apples by Gail Gibbons

The Apple Pie Tree by Zoe Hall  link

Ten Apples Up On Top by Dr. Suess link

Apples A to Z by Margaret McNamara link

Amelia Bedelia's First Apple Pie by Herman Parish link

The Season's of Arnold's Apple Tree by Gail Gibbons  link link

How do Apples Grow? by Betsy Maestro link

The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein link

Apples and Pumpkins by Anne Rockwell link

Rain Makes Applesauce by Julian Scheer

 3-6

The Apple and the Arrow by Mary and Conrad Buff  link

Johnny Appleseed by Eva Moore

The Life and Times of the Apples by Charles Micucci  link

Apples to Oregon by Deborah Hopkinson link

Sideways Stories from Wayside School by Louis Sachar  link

7-12 

D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths by Ingri and Edgar D'Aulaire (look for 'The Apples of Love and the Apples of Discord' and 'Hera')

You could also read The Little Red House to your child and see if they can guess what the little red house actually is.  The story is below.

 
Writing

Here are some ideas for practicing writing at home or school.

Write an Apple Tale
  Have younger students work together to make up their own apple tale (with golden apples or magic apples in it).  Ask older students to write individual apple stories.  They might like to rewrite a well-known fairy tale and add a magic apple as part of the plot.

Write Apple Stories
     -About a mean teacher. Like in Mrs. Gorf by Louis Sachar's Sideways Stories from Wayside School.  Your student will enjoy this funny story about a mean teacher who turns her students into apples.  Younger students can make up a story together with a parent and draw the illustrations.
    -About the star in the apple.  Cut an apple in half crosswise )midway between the stem end and the blossom end), so that your student can see the star made by the seeds.  Ask them to write an imaginary story to explain the presence of the star in the apple.  Let younger children work with an adult to make up their stories and illustrate them; then have your student share their story.
   -About worms.  Ask your student to write a story about a family of worms that lives in an apple.  What adventures do the worms have?  What if a bird, an animal, or a person wanted to eat the apple?  Ask your student to draw a picture of the apple house.

Write an Apple Poem
  Have your student write an acrostic poem or apple cinquain.  Or they can make up their own apple poetry.

here

here

Use this free printable for your student to write their apple story or poem.

 Word Work

Do an apple word sort.  For those that don't know about a word sort, it is a collection of word cards that can be sorted by their attributes.  For example, some of the words in the collection would have a short a sound, while others would have a long a sound.

Practice spelling using games with apple cups.

Now, we are finally onto recipes for apples.  I love using apples in recipes.  It helps me feel like I'm eating healthy even when I'm not.  :)

Kids LOVE helping in the kitchen.  It's a fun way to learn to read a recipe, measure ingredients correctly, clean up, and enjoy something they have made themselves.  My kids have been helping me in the kitchen since they were old enough to sit in the Bumbo on the counter (shhhhh, don't tell anyone that I did that...it's NOT safe).   Nowadays, my kids come running to the kitchen at dinner time or when we are making a special snack.

These are recipes that I have tried and tested on myself and my family and friends.  They are winners in my book.

Flat Apple Pie by Ree Drummond

Apple Cinnamon Streusel Dessert Pizza by Mel's Cafe

Butterfinger Apple Nachos by A Pumpkin and a Princess

Apple Pie Cookies by Oh, Bite It!

Freezer Apple Pie Filling by Ball

Chocolate Dipped Apple Slices by Kidspot Kitchen

Homemade Sparkling Apple Juice by One Good Thing by Jillee

Chocolate Peanut Butter Granola Apple Bites  by The Comfort of Cooking

Autumn Apple Salad by Home Based Mom

Crunchy Apple and Grape Salad by Tasty Kitchen

Homemade Applesauce by Kids a Cookin'

Remember to have fun with your kids while learning a bit more about apples.  Check back next week for ideas to extend the learning through Math and Science with apples!