Apple Week
What's better than just Apple Day... How about Apple WEEK?!?!
This year I decided to go all out. I mean, why not? A few weeks before the big week, I sent out a list of items I needed in order to make dreams come true using my classroom Bloomz account. Within 24 hours, I had everything covered!
Each day during the week, we had one apple activity/focus. We started on Monday by talking about the life cycle of an apple. We read from one of the differentiated mini-books from A Year of Many Firsts Non-Fiction Apple Unit. Then we made a life cycle craft from Ashley Reed's apple unit. As my kiddos finished, I had them take their iPad and read their mini-book and move their life cycle craft as they were reading. Because we are learning how to use the Seesaw app, I had them take a picture of their book and their life cycle craft showing the same part in the life cycle of an apple. Then, I asked them to label it using the pen. It was good practice for them to take pictures... Side note: I need to teach them how to be better photographers... *sigh* ...another day.
On Tuesday, we made crockpot applesauce... OH MY YUM. It was so good. And our room smelled ahhhhhmazing. To be honest, I made the applesauce before the littles came in, and they had the oh-so-important job of stirring it and making observations about how the apples were changing as they cooked. The recipe was SUPER simple: 10-12 red apples (I used Galas), 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup water, and 1 teaspoon cinnamon. By 3pm we were so excited for our treat. While we ate applesauce, we read The Apple King by Francesca Bosca. We were going to vote and graph our results on how much we liked our applesauce but time ran away from us, so it didn't happen... but they all said they loved it!
Wednesday was the day they were most looking forward to... Apple Pie Play Dough! Now, I know most people make play dough on the stove, but I really wanted to get my kids involved. I typed up the recipe and created some comprehension questions to go with it. Because, let's be real, we need to learn how to read a recipe AND I had to make sure my kiddos knew what to expect (reading comprehension + classroom management = win, win, win) -- You can grab the freebie to make it with your kiddos, too! One of my kiddos looked at me during our play dough making craziness and said, "Mrs. Fretwell, this is the best day EVER!" Love.
On Thursday we did a little science experiment called Rotten Apples where we tested how to keep our apples from turning brown. We used more goodies from Ashley Reed's apple unit, but unfortunately I forgot to take pictures because science gets messy!
On Friday we celebrated the end of the week with having a simple snack of apple juice and apple cider during our Fun Friday time. It was a really great week. It definitely took some planning on my part, but it was SO worth. The kids were so excited to come to school each day and hear what our next apple activity would be, so I'll call that a huge success!
I guess it's time to start planning Pumpkin Week...
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| They LOVED smelling the apple pie spice! |
Once we finished making the play dough, I let my kids play around with it and practice making their spelling words while I cleaned up the mess. Thank the Lord for my precious parent volunteer who washed all of my plastic containers so I can reuse them for our next messy project.
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| Spelling practice with our apple pie play dough! |
On Friday we celebrated the end of the week with having a simple snack of apple juice and apple cider during our Fun Friday time. It was a really great week. It definitely took some planning on my part, but it was SO worth. The kids were so excited to come to school each day and hear what our next apple activity would be, so I'll call that a huge success!
I guess it's time to start planning Pumpkin Week...