It doesn’t even have to be apple season to have fun learning about apples! However, late summer into early fall is when I usually take the time to learn about apples with kindergarten students. Students love learning about, talking about, and writing about all things apples! There are so many apple activities for kids that you can easily do in your classroom. Even better, when doing fun apple activities, you can address several content areas seamlessly. This includes sensory play, building fine motor skills, and so much more!
Activities for Kids: Writing About Apples
There is always an easy way to incorporate writing activities for kids—even in an apple unit. One of my favorite things to do is have an apple tasting in my classroom. This will in fact require real apples, so a trip to the grocery store is in order. You can buy red apples, green apples, go crazy! Each student can try an apple slice of each—red, green, and yellow apples. Explore which is their favorite (or least favorite). Then, they can write about which type of apple was their favorite and why.
Students can also share their opinions about different apple treats through writing. Apple sauce, apple juice, or even apple cider could be brought in and sampled. I’d definitely ask parents first if there are any students with a specific apple allergy. Assuming all is in the clear, students can then write about if they do or do not like specific things made from apples. Little learners will love activating their senses and you are further instilling in them the gift of curiosity.
Overall, writing about apples can be a great way to get students sharing their opinions and thoughts through writing, while also giving them some hands-on experience connected to what they will be writing about. There’s no better way to encourage a love for writing other than by creating fun opportunities for them to share what they think and feel through the power of words!
Apple Science and STEM
As with writing activities, there are many different ways to switch things up. This includes science activities for kids that can be done in a classroom involving apples. For one, an apple unit can be a great time to reinforce what students learned in a Five Senses unit. Because apples are edible, students can use all five senses to explore this one object, and then record their observations.
Learning about apples is also a great time to talk about plants, life cycles, and labeling/using diagrams. In my Everything Apples product on TpT, I include straightforward pages for all of these activities so that your students can label the life cycle and parts of an apple themselves. In my apple unit, I also provide several ideas for STEM projects, including materials lists, directions, and pictures. One of the ideas is an apple volcano! Your students will love figuring out how to make an apple “erupt” using only vinegar and baking soda—and you will love seeing your students putting their problem-solving skills to the test!
Apple Literacy and Math
An apple unit is also a great time to bring in early literacy and math skills for your students. Because there are so many great apple books to choose from, you could easily introduce or reinforce the differences between fiction and nonfiction books at this time. After reading books like Ten Apples Up on Top by Dr. Seuss, and Apples by Gail Gibbons, it is easy for students to see that one book told a story, while the other shared facts and information.
When doing math in an apple unit, you can bring in real apple seeds to count, or find useful apple erasers that students can use as manipulatives. Learning about apples also provides really great opportunities for talking about graphing and reading graphs. You can graph and compare how many students liked each kind of apple the best, especially if you do the apple tasting activities mentioned above.
My Everything Apples Unit provides even more literacy and math activities, including counting apples worksheets, apple math centers, and apple literacy centers for practicing letters, rhyming, and more!
Learning about apples early in the school year seems like such a staple for kindergarteners and other young learners. Students always love the different hands-on apple activities. While teachers love that students can complete fun activities while still covering all content areas. These ideas will hopefully help you kick off your apple unit and get your students excited about learning!
It really doesn’t matter what time of year you introduce your favorite apple activities though. Kids will love these fun crafts no matter what the season. If it’s in the budget, kids of all ages would love a school trip to an apple orchard. This is a sure fun way to bring the kids’ activities to life.
So what do you think so far about apple theme lesson plans? What are fun fall activities you enjoy implementing?
Leave a Reply