Apples

Book Ideas:

Ten Red Apples, by Pat Hutchins
"In rhyming verses, one animal after another neighs, moos, oinks, quacks and makes other appropriate sounds as each eats an apple from the farmer's tree. Will there be any left for the farmer and his wife?"


Apples, Apples, Apples by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace

"On a day perfect for apple picking, the bunny family heads to Long Hill Orchard. Mr. Miller takes them to the trees on his wobbly farm wagon and tells them all sorts of fun facts about fall's favorite fruit."


Ten Apples up on Top by Dr. Seuss
"This typical Dr. Seuss story has three animals all competing with each other to see who can balance the most apples on his head. In addition to the amusing actions, kids also learn to count from 1 to 10."


Johnny Appleseed by Patricia Brennan Demuth
"Recounts the story of the man who traveled west planting apple seeds to make the country a better place to live."




Songs and Rhymes

APPLE TREE

Way up high in the apple tree (stretch arm up high)
Two red apples smiled at me (hold up 2 fingers)
I shook that tree as hard as I could (make a shaking motion)
Down came the apples, (make a downward motion)
Mmmm--were they good! (smile and rub stomach)


Five little Apples
Sung to "Five Little Monkeys"

Five little apples swinging in a tree
I sure wish one would fall to me
One fell down
And hit the ground
Now how many apples do you see?

Apples
(sung to tune of "Are you Sleeping?")

Picking apples
picking apples
one by one
one by one
Put them in a basket
Put them in a basket
Oh what fun! Oh what fun!

Apples, Apples
(Tune: "Twinkle, Twinkle")

Apples juicy, apples round,
On the tree or on the ground.
Apples yellow, apples red,
Apple pie and juice and bread!
Apples crunchy, apples sweet, Apples are so good to eat!

Apple
(sung to tune of Bingo was his name-o)

I know a food that's good to eat
and apple is it's name-o
A -P -P- L -E
A- P- P- L- E
A -P- P- L- E
and apple is it's name-o!



Apples falling down
(Sung to the tune of London Bridge)
Stand holding arms above your head like branches. Move arms up and down. Encourage children to wiggle their fingers as they move.


See the apples falling down
Falling down, falling down,
See the apples falling down,
Down to the ground.

(Children squat and pretend to pick up the apples, throwing them into the air.)

Pick the apples, throw them up,
Throw them up, throw them up.
Pick the apples throw them up
Way up high!


Activity Ideas:

Idea #1: Apple cooking
Read one of the book titles and talk about all the different kinds of food you can make out of apples. Then work together to prepare one of your favorite apple recipes. (Make sure to save the cores of any apples you use in your recipes for the seed counting activity or the stamping activity mentioned below). We made some caramel apples one night and decorated them with sprinkles and mini M&Ms. Some other yummy ideas are Apple Pie, Apple Crisp or Homemade Applesauce. Here is the recipe for one of our family favorites:
Apple Bread/Muffins
3 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp b.soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
2 cups sugar
1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
3 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
3 cups grated apple (skinned and cored first)

Cream together the sugar, oil, eggs and vanilla (mixing in the eggs one at a time). In separate bowl mix all dry ingredients together. Alternate adding dry ingredients and grated apples to the creamed mixture, until all ingredients are mixed in well. For bread loaf, bake at 325 for about an hour. For muffins 350 for 20-30 minutes or so, checking for doneness with a toothpick.



Idea#2: Apple Seed Counting



Before you start this activity you need to make a recording sheet, like the one in the photo, either by drawing 4-6 apple shapes on a paper, or by using clip art. If you want my handout just email me and I can email you back with my Word Document attached to the email, so that all you have to do is print it off. (My email is amykrodriguez@netzero.net). You will also need 4-6 apple cores.

Remove and count the seeds from one apple core. After counting the seeds, glue them into the center of one of the apples on your recording sheet. If your child is old enough, have them write the number next to the apple. Continue counting and gluing seeds from each apple core until you have recorded them all. (Seeds in an apple will range from 4-10 seeds). Ask your child which one has the most seeds and have them circle that apple.

***This photo is my five-year old's paper. My two year old was still fully capable of doing this activity, although I only had her count and record three apple's seeds. We counted out the seeds together and I wrote the number next to the apple and she had fun gluing the seeds on.

Idea #3: Apple Stamping

For this activity you will need to cut one apple in half vertically (shown above) and one apple horizontally, cutting the core in half (as shown below).

Dip the apples in paint and stamp them on construction paper. The trick to this activity is cutting the apples with a straight and flat edge and then pressing and wiggling the apple slightly as you stamp it. My two year old had fun stamping away and didn't care what the shapes turned out like; whereas, my older daughter was getting frustrated that the star or flower wasn't working right. The star stamp is a lot harder to get to work than the apple shaped stamp. You may have to have a few spare apples handy to re cut and get a better working stamp.

Idea #4: Painting Apple Trees All you need for this activity is some green and brown tempera paint (I mixed colors to get my brown), a piece of construction paper, a paint brush, and some red gift wrap tissue paper. For a younger child, printing off a tree outline on the construction paper might be helpful to give them some guidance. Begin by painting a tree on your paper. Make sure that your child uses plenty of paint so that the tissue apples will stick to the paint.


Next, Have your child rip the tissue paper into small pieces and then ball them up. (For younger children, it may help to rip the pieces for them and then let them crumple them into a tiny ball).

Press the crumpled tissue balls on the wet paint, all over the tree. Don't make the balls too big or they will not stick on to the paint.

Here is the two-year old version.

Here is the 5 year old version.