When I think of Fall, I think of apples. I’m sure it’s years and years of training to come to that, but the grocery store suddenly has all of the apples they didn’t have earlier in the year. It’s almost like the apples taste better then.
My favorite apple book of all is How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World
I also enjoy it because there are many subject tie-ins to expand it out into a five day unit.
On the first day read the book, and follow along with a map. If you don’t have one, there is an included book to use. This is a great introductory map activity for pre-schoolers. It makes geography fun, and something they look forward to, rather than something to hate and dislike.
For older kids, the route she uses is not the most straight forward, have them map out a more direct route to gain all of the supplies. To extend the activities further, try finding other countries that produce the materials they need.
On the second day, read the story again and study the artwork. What colors does the illustrator primarily use. How do these colors make you feel? Is the art style realistic or cartoony? Why did the artist choose this style? The soft muted colors for the background remind me of watercolors. Try painting with watercolors. How can you get the best results with them, is it better to paint on dry paper or wet paper? Try drawing with crayons then painting over it, what happens with the crayons and the paint?
On the third day go to the store and buy several different types of apples. What is everyone’s favorite apple? Graph the results, to get more variety try asking your friends on Facebook or at church. This can be a great chance to gather data in real life, and graph the answers. Try making predictions, will everyone’s favorite be red delicious or will it be honeycrisp? Have older elementary kids turn the results into fractions, 1/10 of the people polled like red delicious best, what is that number as a decimal?
Reread the story again on the fourth day. It’s a great example of “Voice” in writing. The story has a distinctive tone and feeling to it, that makes it fun to read. Look for sentences together that make you want to read more. Point out the word choices the author uses: superb, coax, evaporate, they add to the character of the story. As an alternative, at the end of the story she says “apple pie is delicious topped with vanilla ice cream, which you can get at the market. But if the market happens to be closed…….” Try writing your own version of how you gather the materials to make ice cream. Where do you go?
On the final day of the unit, you have to make pie. There’s a recipe included in the back of the book if you don’t have one. My kids very much enjoyed making this pie, and talking through how to do it. I will warn you, preschoolers are not good at rolling out pie dough.
If you want more resources for studying apples with your kids, here’s few more I found:
Apples unit study for preschool and kindergarten
How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World unit study
We did this too with Five in a Row and it was so much fun!!! 🙂