Play, Learn, & Discover... Together: It's Apple Time!

Our autumn unit began with a fun week of exploring apples.
First, we set up an apple orchard!

The children picked apples and filled bushel baskets.

Our bakers rolled pastry dough and stirred diced apples to prepare fresh apple pies.

Our country market clerks sold tickets for Cider Mill tours, as well as apples, apple butter, applesauce, and even apple donuts. Money and credit cards are being used in abundance. These kids are masters at swiping cards. So funny!

Our apple pickers sorted apples by color into the bins in our store where they were bagged for sale.

Of course, reading a good apple book helped pass the time while waiting for the cider mill tour to begin.

Stop by for a peek before the next transformation occurs!

In our Discovery Lab the children are busy being scientists, mathematicians, and artists.
Cutting open a few apples we discovered that tipping an apple on its side allowed us to find a star in the apple. Cutting it from the top to the bottom there was no star. We also observed that over time, the flesh of the apple turned brown. Ewwww! Why did that happen?

At the discovery table, the children explored weighing apples using scales. It was so fun watching them try to make one side heavier than the other, especially when using the crab apples. So many crab apples were still lighter than one, big apple. Hmmmm... something to really think about. The chatter was amazing!

Something new at the discovery table this week was an observational drawing challenge. I am trying to train the children to slow down and look closely and notice the small details in things. When we looked closely at the apples, we noticed that some of them had very small dark spots and they were different shades of colors.

At the math centers, we made patterns,

and made and counted apples in the apple trees.

At the art table, it was fun making apple prints. We even saw the star in some of the prints.

The prekinders LOVE experiments. We enjoyed making predictions on whether or not an apple would float or sink when placed in a tub of water. Check out our predictions vs. the final results.

Henry made a really fascinating discovery... he noticed that all the brown crab apples floated to the surface, but the green ones sunk!! Great observation skills!!

Another fun experiment we enjoyed was testing which type of apple was our individual favorite. Our tasting party was quite tasty indeed. We will be making 3 giant apple trees for the bulletin board in the hall to show the results. Be sure to pop in.

Preparing and baking apple bites was the culmination of our special week. First, we used an apple tool to remove the core and then Mrs. Flynn peeled the apple. Of course, we had fun picking out all the seeds too:)

Then, the children got right to dicing up the apples.

Next, we dumped the apples into a bowl and added some cinnamon. Mmm... it smelled so yummy!

We rolled and flattened the dough and spooned a few apples in the center. It was so fun to wrap the pastry dough around the apples. We brushed the outside with milk and sprinkled it with cinnamon and then popped them in the oven. They were sooooo yummy. The entire first floor smelled delicious:)