Science: Aa is for Apple

Our Apple Unit Highlights:

~ What We Already Know
Going into our the start of our apple unit, we brainstormed all the things we already knew about apples. We brought in a lot of background knowledge making our additional apple learning so much fun!


~ taste testing apples
We taste tested and describe four different apples. We taste tested Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, Granny Smith, and Braeburn. We graphed our favorites. The Red Delicious were our favorites.


~ Honey Creek Acres field trip
We were able to see the apple orchards aboard a fun and bumpy hay ride. We also learned from a Honey Creek expert about their apples and the honey bees they have and the bees' important job. We got to see the honey bees live at work through a see through bee house and we even got to taste the honey they made! Yum! We were able take home some apples from the orchard to use in our applesauce.


~ dissecting apples
We cut open apples to find the seed pockets within the apple's core. We pulled out our apples' seed and counted how many seeds we found. Did you know? Apples can have as few as two seeds and as many as ten seeds. We then graphed our findings.





~ identifying parts of an apple
The Cottontails loved finding and labeling the parts of an apple. Did you know that the apple has six parts? The seeds, core, flesh, skin, stem, and leaves. Come check out our art work on display in the classroom.


~ organizing the life cycle of an apple tree
We took time to study the phases of a growing apple tree. We organized each step and created a Apple Life Cycle Book. Take a look at our student example on display within the school wide Thematic Learning Board.


~ baking Crock Pot Applesauce Deep Dish Apple Pie
Throughout our apple unit we took the morning to make Crock Pot Applesauce and bake a delicious Deep Dish Apple Pie. We sliced and peeled and peeled and slice. Our applesauce filled the school with delicious smells of sweet apples and cinnamon. We sampled a little of our delicious applesauce but put the rest aside to freeze and save and share with our friends at our upcoming Thanksgiving Feast.


Just like Amelia Bedelia in Amelia Bedelia's First Apple Pie we were so excited to make an apple pie. It was so much fun slicing and peeling the apples by using a special crank peeler/slicer. We also took turns measuring dry and wet ingredients and some friends helped in making and rolling out the pie's dough. It was delicious and Wilson's apple cider was the perfect drink to go with our very own apple pie. Interested in the recipes? Check out the QR codes on our school wide display for quick links to these tasty treats!


Apple Reflection
At the end of our unit, we created a "Graffiti Board" of all the facts we discussed and learned about. I am so impressed with how much our Cottontails know about apples. Check out our graffiti board outside our classroom. As we move on to discussing pumpkins we will soon use our knowledge of apples to compare and contrast the two.