Apples

A few weeks ago, we celebrated Johnny Appleseed's birthday and used apples for learning all week.  We learned facts about the apple tree and how it changes with each season.  Using our detective skills, we found the hidden star inside of the apples.  We used our apples to make observations & predictions in Science and graphs in Math.  Above, you can see a part of our apple taste test.  The kids thought the Granny Smith apples were very tart! :)  I could create an entire photo slide show entitled "The faces of tasting a Granny Smith apple" and really make you giggle.

After tasting different types of apples, the kids revealed to the group their favorite kind.  I loved hearing them explain why their apple tasted best...my favorite was "because it makes your mouth so juicy that you don't even have to have a drink of water."  They crack me up!

 Anyway, the best part of our apple week was on Friday when we made applesauce!  In Writing, we had started doing some research on applesauce recipes earlier in the week.  We wrote our own class recipe, using steps and sequence words.  Then, we were all ready to make our creation at the end of the week. 

The kids followed our recipe and took turns adding the different ingredients to our crockpot.  Our classroom smelled delicious all day, as it simmered away over in the corner.

They worked with partners to write out the steps in our recipe.  We created a sequenced instructional book, "How to Make Applesauce" to share our recipe with everyone. The kids worked so hard, making sure not to leave anything out of the directions!

We saved a spot on every page to put a photograph of each how-to step.  Since this would be a nonfiction text, we wanted to include real photographs instead of illustrations.

Finally, at the end of the day, we got to taste our creation!  It was a hit!  We scraped the crockpot clean, making sure to get every last drop in our bellies! Only a few kiddos decided that they liked store bought applesauce better. ;)