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Students can observe the beginning stages of an apple tree’s growth with
this activity. Give each child a few apple seeds, a resealable plastic bag, and a
paper towel. Guide them in following these steps.
Moisten the paper towel with water. Fold the paper towel in half and
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place it inside the plastic bag.
Place the apple seeds inside the bag on top of the paper towel. Close the
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bag partway, leaving an opening so that air can circulate inside.
Place the bags in a refrigerator for six weeks.
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Bring out the bags, and spritz the paper towels with water to keep them
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moist but not soggy.
As seeds begin to germinate, tiny roots and little shoots will appear.
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Plant the sprouts one inch deep in paper cups filled with potting soil.
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Keep in a sunny spot. Cover the cups loosely with plastic wrap to retain
moisture and help seedlings survive over weekends.
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Let children explore one of the ways people
preserve food by drying apples. They’ll discover
the science of evaporation and strengthen math
skills at the same time.
Peel apples and slice them into rings. Ask
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children to predict how much the apples
weigh. Record estimates, then weigh the
apples.
Have children team up to string apples. Give
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each team a length of string and some apple rings.
Have children string the apples, then predict how
much the apples will weigh after they dry.
Clip the strings of apples to a clothesline strung up in the classroom.
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Ask students what they think will happen to the apples. (They’ll shrink
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and wrinkle as water evaporates.) Let them record changes they observe.
Weigh the dried apples. Compare with the weight of the apples before
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they dried. Ask students to tell what they think caused the change in
weight. (loss of water) Let children enjoy their apple snack!
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500+ Fabulous Month-by-Month Teaching Ideas © Scholastic Teaching Resources
SCIENCE
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by Julian Scheer (Holiday House, 1964)
SCIENCE
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Mix up this no-cook snack with your students to reinforce predicting,
measuring, and other skills.
Gather the following ingredients: one apple and two teaspoons of honey
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for every two students; cinnamon.
Peel and core the apples. Cut them into quarters and chop into small
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chunks.
Place the apple chunks in a blender and mix. Add the honey and mix
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until smooth.
Pour into serving dishes (small paper cups work well) and sprinkle with
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cinnamon.
As you mix up the applesauce, ask questions to guide a discussion—for
example, Why do you think we cut the apples into chunks? How do you
think the applesauce will change when we add the honey? How many cups of
applesauce do you think one apple will make? Ten apples?
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Provide each student with two-color counters and a sheet of white paper.
(Counters that are red on one side and yellow on the other are best for
this activity.) Tell students they will use these counters to represent red and
yellow apples. Have students construct sets of apples on their paper for a
given target number. For example, if the target number is 8, students might
show 6 yellow and 2 red. Have them write an equation underneath for each
of the sets they create. Challenge them to create as many sets and equations
as possible for each target number.
500+ Fabulous Month-by-Month Teaching Ideas © Scholastic Teaching Resources
“The stars are made of lemon juice and rain makes applesauce. I wear my
shoes inside out and rain makes applesauce.” And so goes the Caldecott
Honor book, Rain Makes Applesauce, a bouncy rhyme combining fanciful
illustrations with child-inspired nonsense sentences. Each silly phrase ends
with the refrain, “and rain makes applesauce.” Children will enjoy this as a
read aloud, read along, poem, story, or song. They will love finishing each
stanza with a hearty, giggling, “And rain makes applesauce!”
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Can you remember the first
apple you ever saw? Not
likely. We grow up with
apples everywhere and never
think much about them.
Learn more about this
favorite fruit with a mini
research project.
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apples. (See Tip.)
Apple Fact pattern
Enlarge and copy the “Apple Fact” pattern above. Have children write
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one fact on each apple.
Prepare a simple tree with branches on the bulletin board and have
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children add their apples to the tree. Add a title, such as “Pick a fact
about apples.”
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Your class can explore how
to use a balance scale, and
the idea of standard measure,
by using apples. Use a pan
balance and a bag of apples
from the store. (Smaller
apples work best.) Put a book
in one side of the balance. Ask the class to estimate how many apples they
think the book weighs. Test it to see. Weigh other items from around the
room in terms of apples. Always have students estimate an answer first.
To explore further, use a pound weight to find out how many apples are
in a pound. Finally, have students estimate how many apples they think
they weigh. (You can find out by weighing a pound of apples, and then
multiplying the number of apples in a pound by the number of pounds the
student actually weighs.)
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500+ Fabulous Month-by-Month Teaching Ideas © Scholastic Teaching Resources
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Staple a large blank calendar to
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your bulletin board. Write the odd
numbers from 1 to 29 on red cutout apples and the even numbers
from 2 to 30 on green apples. Write the multiples of 5 (5, 10, 15, 20,
25, 30) on six bushel-basket cutouts. All of the cutouts should fit inside
a calendar square.
Each day, ask a student to place the appropriate odd or even apple on
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the calendar date. Every fifth day, have a student place an apple basket
on top of, but not completely covering, the apple for that day. Ask: How
many apples do you think a basket represents? Explain that each basket
represents a multiple of five. Students can also skip count by twos using
the green apples.
S C I E N C E , L A N G U A G E A RT S
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Good observation skills are necessary for any scientist. Help students
develop this skill with this apple activity.
Give each child an apple to examine and then draw. Remind students
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to really look at the apple and to draw what they see, not just what they
think an apple might look like.
Ask students to draw five lines leading out from the apple to make an
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observation web. At the end of each line, have them write the words
hearing, touch, smell,
sight, and taste. Invite
students to use their
senses to explore
the apple in greater
detail, writing words
at the end of each
line that describe how
the apple sounds,
feels, smells, looks,
and tastes.
*+
500+ Fabulous Month-by-Month Teaching Ideas © Scholastic Teaching Resources
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Apple cutouts and a simple calendar
are great tools for teaching skip
counting and patterning as part of your
daily calendar activities.
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by Sandy Nightingale (Harcourt, 1996)
Cider Apples is a charming story of how young Holly helps save her
grandparents’ apple orchard on a magical New Year’s Eve. Beautiful
illustrations and a happy ending make for a great apple-inspired read
aloud. You may want to bring in some apple cider for students to enjoy
as they listen.
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500+ Fabulous Month-by-Month Teaching Ideas © Scholastic Teaching Resources
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Use a little apple knowledge and the awesome imaginations of
young children to create this collaborative banner.
Give each student a copy of the banner template on page
Zx
36. Read the sentence frame aloud: What can you do with
an apple? You can ______________ .
Brainstorm possible answers together, then have students
Zx
complete the sentence. The blank space is purposefully
large to give children room for any idea they might
have—whether it’s “make applesauce” or “put an engine
in it and fly to the moon.”
Have students illustrate their pages, then arrange them in
Zx
banner formation. Glue banner pages to a long strip of
craft paper and display!
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by Jane Yolen (HarperCollins, 2008)
Richly-textured pages share the history and facts behind the legend of John
Chapman, also known as Johnny Appleseed.
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