Yummy, Apples!

Our Apple Unit Highlights

Enjoy these exciting highlights from our apple unit.

~ taste testing apples
We taste tested and describe four different apples. We taste tested Jazz, Golden Delicious, Granny Smith, and Honeycrisp.  We graphed our favorites.  Honeycrisps were our favorites.

~  estimating bites
How many bites to get to the core?  We tallied our bites and surprised at how many bites it actually took!

~ Allen's Orchard field trip
We traveled to a new (to Willowwind) orchard where, from an Allen's Orchard expert, we learned about apples, the honey bees, and the bees' important job. We toured the orchard, saw their furry friends, - the goats - and watched the machine that cleans the apples before they are sold in the market.

~ 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 soon 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 books on display on the classroom's rectangle table.

~  measuring with apples.
We used apples as a non-standard unit of measurement.  We took apples and measured our heights.  Take a look at our graph in the hallway.  How many apples tall are you?

~ apple glyphs
We have been learning about using symbols to classify and display informations.  We made Apple Glyphs that show our apple preferences - Do you like apples?  How do you like to eat apples?  Have you had apple pie before? etc.  Take a look at our apple glyphs.  Do you think you can decipher them?  Use our key!

~ baking crock pot Applesauce
We took one morning to make Crock Pot Applesauce. We sliced and peeled and peeled and slice. We even ate the left over apple peel "snakes".  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.  Check out this LINK to our easy applesauce recipe.

~ Deep Dish Apple Pie
Just like Amelia Bedelia in Amelia Bedelia's First Apple Pie we are so excited to make an apple pie.  Tomorrow, with Ms. Eve, we will slice and peel apples with a special crank peeler/slicer. We will take turns measuring dry and wet ingredients and some friends will help in making and rolling out the pie's dough.  Interested in the recipe?  Check out this LINK to our tasty pie!

~  Apple Reflection
Next week, as we reach the end of our unit, we will create a "Graffiti Board" of all the facts we discussed and learned about.  I am already so impressed with how much our Cottontails know about apples.  We will take our thoughts from our "Graffiti Board" and write about our own individual growth and reflection.  As we move on to discussing pumpkins, we will soon use our knowledge of apples to compare and contrast the two.