Lesson Theme: Apples!

I know, I know - posting about apples in November?!?  Better late than never, right?  

I think we did this theme in September if that gives you any idea of how far behind I am in posting our thematic activities.   ;)  I believe we also stretched this theme over more than one week.  (I've been doing that with more than one theme lately too which is one reason you may not see items posted every week anymore.  I like to wait until we have finished up a theme before writing about it.)

Are you ready to see a few of the things we did?  Of course you are!

So sit back, relax, and pretend it is September - okay?  ;)

Here is a multi-dimensional chart I made to go along with an apple thematic packet I bought.  This is just an enlarged and embellished version of the chart in the activity pack.  :)  To make the apple, I basically just squished up some red tissue paper and glued it to the middle of my chart.

We tasted several different apples (how can anyone not with the astounding variety out there, right?), and I wrote down describing words the kids came up with for each category.

The kids then chose some words from our large chart and completed the smaller charts that came in the packet.  You can see one example of the small chart in the middle of the picture above.

The packet came with many other fun games, activities, a graph, etc. as well.  We spent a good amount of time just on the items in this packet.  Here is a link if you are interested in purchasing it.

Adjectives came in rather handy for another activity where we took turns hiding different apples inside a bag.  We would write three words that described the hidden apple on a small whiteboard.  The other people would then have a chance to read the words and guess which apple was in the bag.  

Miss A also spent some time using her investigative skills to find the different parts of an apple.

AND we practiced our fractions by reading the book "Apple Fractions" and doing some hands-on fraction work with our own apples.  We used this book last year, and I HIGHLY recommend it.  Not only is it informative, but I think it does a great job of illustrating fractions AND inserts a fun element by depicting little elves working hard at the process of dividing apples into the appropriate number of pieces.  

I was delighted with it last year and found myself delighted with it AGAIN this year (and folks, mathematics is not my thing so if a math book can charm me that much two years in a row - well, let's just say I think it is a worthwhile book to have in a homeschooling library).  There's a link below if you are interested in purchasing your own.

This was one of my favorite activities:  an apple collection book!  I printed out several poems, songs, etc. about apples from a site online, and the kids cut them out and pasted them inside pages of their books.

The cover was made from cardboard (maybe a box of cheddar bunnies?) and painted red.  I used a corrugated cardboard piece for the stem, and we completed the "apple" look with a leaf.

Ah, but perhaps the most fun part was the fuzzy green velvet (ribbon) worm we glued in the book to act as a bookmark - complete with wiggly eyes!  When the worm was not "working",  he could peek his little head out of the hole in the cover.  :)

We read stories about apples and looked at apple recipes.  We then chose a recipe from one of the books and made apple pie.  The picture above was a retelling activity of sorts where my little "chef" explained how we made our apple pie.

Speaking of apple recipes, we also made some of these delicious beauties.

And (in keeping with the charm of "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie") if you bake an apple pie and make caramel apples, chances are you'll need something to drink to go with it!

Happy "belated" September everyone!  :)