Apples: Apple Picking!

We drove 3 hours and spent $100 on a hotel room not to go apple picking.

Apples can be bought in stores. No, we spent the money and invested the time specifically to create this memory for our children. To impress upon their souls that family is important... that God's creation is good... that they are deeply loved.

Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. 

A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.

Apples: Apple Prints

What would an apple unit be without an apple print craft? When I ran across two totes in a friend's bag of old craft supplies (thanks, Michelle!), I knew they'd make perfect bags to take apple picking this weekend.

I'm sure you'll forgive me for doing this craft while the two-year-old napped. Some things - like acrylic paint - are best left out of toddler's hands.

E decided on the design for her bag, which provided an excellent lesson in patterns. 

After bedtime tonight, I pulled out my trusty paint pens and add the stems and leaves. Aren't they cute? They're going to look even cuter filled with ripe, juicy apples! We just booked our hotel and I can't wait to drive to the mountains to go apple picking this weekend!

Apple Fractions by Jerry Pallotta

So when is someone going to invent Netflix for books? I can't get my hands on this one, but the few pages I can preview on Amazon look fantastic. Can anyone recommend? Full page colorful illustrations show tiny elves working with whole and sliced apples. Under each picture are factoids about not only apples and fractions but other types of fruit and even bees. The pictures alone make this book worth a second look, but I also think it would be a great way to introduce fractions... and then do an apple fraction activity on your own! Yum.

I'm linking up to:
-ABC & 123's Show & Tell

Apples: Apple Tasting!

For our after-school snack today, I hosted an apple tasting for my two favorite little ladies.

They tried five varieties of apples: Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, Gala, Braeburn, and Pink Lady.

The judges carefully tested each apple on appearance, texture, and overall tastiness. 

After much deliberation, Pink Lady was declared the favorite, with Golden Delicious finishing a close second! What's your favorite variety?

Up, Up, Up! It's Apple-picking Time by Jody Fickes Shapiro

This simple story of a family enjoying the sweet delights of apple-picking time hearkens back to my own childhood in Michigan. I have dear memories of visiting orchards in the fall to pick crisp, juicy apples. Shapiro's book captures perfectly the smells and sights of an autumn apple orchard, and rejoices in the time a family can spend there together. The language is simple enough to engage a toddler but is also lyrical and beautifully descriptive. How can you resist phrases like, "fresh-baked apple dumplings, floating like islands in a sea of milk?"

I'm linking up to:
- Feed Me Books Friday @ Little Sprout Books

A is for Apple

Of course it is! Here's an adorable and simple craft I found on Totally Tots.  All you need is a few sheets of construction paper (or craft foam) and glue.

 Let your little one practice her fine motor skills while you discuss the letter "A".

A finished craft in about five minutes - the perfect amount of time for my active toddler!

Little Apple Goat by Caroline Jayne Church

I'll admit it... It's the cover that drew me in. How adorable is that goat? And that apple? So pickable! The story is almost as cute. Little Apple Goat lives down on the farm and loves eating apples (and pears and cherries). When she's done with the fruit she spits the seeds and pits over the hedge (Plippety Plip!). One day a strong storm blows over all the apple trees, making all the farm animals sad to lose their orchard. But come next autumn, a whole new orchard grew up over the hedge. Who could have planted it?

Like I said, it's a cute story, and my only complaint is that it actually takes years for a fruit tree to start bearing fruit. Hardly an issue with toddlers and preschoolers who can't yet understand the passage of time.

Apples: Apple Pie Playdough

We haven't made play dough in awhile, so when I saw this recipe for apple pie play dough I figured it be a great start to our Apple Week.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of flour
• 1/2 cup of salt
• 2 cups of water
• 2 tablespoons of oil
• 1 small container cream of tartar
• cinnamon, nutmeg, all spice
• red food coloring 

Add all the ingredients to a large saucepan. I suppose you could measure out the spices, but I let the girls decide how much.

Stir constantly over medium-low heat until it firms up into non-sticky dough. (Tip: don't do this after an "Abs & More" class at the Y. It's a workout in itself!)

 Let your dough cool and then enjoy! I thought it smelled just like an apple pie. E said it smelled "sorta" good.

Both girls thought it was a lot of fun!

The Apple Pie Tree by Zoe Hall

Ideal for 2 and 3 year olds, this beautifully illustrated book explains how to "grow an apple pie." Two young sisters describe their apple tree through the seasons. We watch as it changes from a bare tree in winter, to beautiful blossoms in spring, small green apples in summer, and then full ripe apples in autumn... apples just perfect for an apple pie! Also in the tree are two robins who hatch their eggs, raise their chicks, and then teach them to fly. The short sentences and vibrant illustrations will hold the attention of young children, while introducing them to the seasons and lifecycle of an apple.


I'm linking up to:
- ABC & 123's Show & Tell

Apples - The Legend... and a really cute T

The Book - Johnny Appleseed by Stephen and Rosemary Benet

I loved the story of Johnny Appleseed when I was a kid. I remember watching the Disney video and falling in love with the young John Chapman. He was handsome, loved apples, and lived off the land... he was the first Bear Grylls! I have sung the song to my girls since before they could walk, so I couldn't allow an apple-themed week to pass without teaching Little Page the legend.



There are several books about Johnny Appleseed. This one is a copy of the classic poem matched with beautiful colored-pencil illustrations of a wizened but jaunty Johnny Appleseed. The poem has a sing-song quality which makes it an easy read-aloud. The illustrations are lovely and full of little details children will enjoy. The Johnny Appleseed in these pictures may not be as handsome as the Disney version, but the story should still get your kids to fall in love.

The Craft - Apple Print T's


Apple prints seemed like a logical choice for our craft today, but I'm so sick of throwing Little Page's artwork away. We just don't have the room. I needed to head to Wal-fart this afternoon for rice (for another project) so I picked up a couple cheap kids shirts while I was there. I'm a big proponent of useful crafts!

To make an apple print on a t-shirt, or any other surface, cut an apple in half. Brush the inside of the apple with red paint. Press lightly on a piece of paper to remove any gloopy paint and then press onto the t-shirt. Lift up slowly to reveal your perfect apple print! (Be sure to place a folded piece of paper or cardboard inside the shirt before you do your print so the paint doesn't leak through to the back.)

Once the paint is dry you can add a leaf with a green paint pen. I was thinking of writing an "Aa" next to the apple, but my handwriting stinks and I didn't want to push my luck. Isn't this a sweet shirt for my Littlest Page?


For Little Page's shirt I used orange paint, filling in the hole from the core to create a cute pumpkin. Instead of a leaf, I drew a little stem and a jack-o-lantern face. Then I added Little Page's favorite phrase these days - "Boo!"

She can't wait to show off her new Halloween shirt tomorrow at school! And I can't wait to show off the great pumpkin-themed crafts and stories I have planned for next week, so come back! And as always, if you like what you see, please consider following me.

Apples - Easy as...

The Book - How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World by Marjorie Priceman

If you want to make an apple pie, you need to gather flour, eggs, sugar, salt, cinnamon, butter and apples. Go to the market to get the ingredients. But if the market is closed...

Well, if the market is closed you'll need to travel to Italy to pick the wheat, visit England to grab a cow, cut down sugar cane in Jamaica, gather sea water from the ocean... you get the idea. The illustrations are colorful and stylized, a perfect match to the international setting. Written in second-person, the story hits a great tongue-in-cheek tone throughout, with such throw-away lines like "you'll know she's an English cow from her good manners and charming accent." With this gentle and ironic humor, children learn geography and the origins of the food they eat. Of course, the back of the book includes a recipe for apple pie. Which leads us to...

The Food - Mini Apple Pies


One of the problems with being a blogger is that you think you have an original idea, then you google it and realize you are #357,092 to have that idea. So, I'm apparently not the first person to decide to make baby apple pies in muffin tins, but that doesn't mean they weren't delicious!

Ingredients:

• 2 pie crusts
• 2 1/2 apples, peeled and diced
  
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• splash of lemon juice
  
• egg wash (egg white and 1 T water)

Mix your apples, sugar, cinnamon, and lemon juice in a bowl. Cut out six 4-5" circles of pie crust. I used an inverted Gerber plastic bowl and traced around it with a knife. Tuck each circle of dough into the muffin tin and spoon the filling inside until almost heaping. Cut six 3-4" circles of pie crust. I flipped the bowl around, indented the dough with the bottom of it, and then cut a little larger than the indent. (You know, circle cookie cutters would probably be much easier, but when do I ever have the right tools?) Place the smaller circles on top of each pie and pinch the edges to close. I pinched them under to make it look more like a pie, but if you pinch the bottom up over the top they'll be easier to take out of the tins. Brush with the egg wash, sprinkle with sugar, and cut slits in the top with a knife.

Bake at 375 for about 15-20 minutes. Keep an eye on it and pull out when the tops are golden brown and crispy. Let it cool for about 10 minutes before removing from the tins. Good luck with that, by the way. I suggest trying to take them out when you're in a very zen-like mood... or when your children are out of earshot! Of course, if you mess up and one falls apart, you'll need to hide the evidence...

Apples - Up on Top!

When Littlest Page sees an apple in the grocery store, a strange apple-lust takes over her body and turns her into a crazed baby. Heaven and earth couldn't keep her from getting her pudgy hands on one of those shiny apples, never mind that she's strapped to a shopping cart, four feet above the produce shelves. She stretches her little arms out towards the apples, arches her back, and winds up for the ultimate temper tantrum. If I don't move fast to place the sacred fruit in her lap, I'm in for a tempest of tears, screams, and scratches. (Yes, she scratches!) Having received her favorite snack, she smiles sweetly at me, sighs with perfect happiness, and begins to gnaw its flesh with her four little teeth.

In honor of my 1 year-old's passion, I'm devoting this week to all things apple!

The Book - Ten Apples Up on Top by Dr. Suess

How could I not start with the classic Dr. Suess? Believe it or not, I wasn't familiar with this book until Little Page's preschool did a unit on it last year. I'm so glad Mrs. Brenner introduced it to us!

A true Dr. Suess book, it combines simple rhymes and even simpler illustrations to teach reading and counting. In the story, a dog, a lion, and a tiger try to balance increasing numbers of apples on their heads with predictable but entertaining consequences. Containing only 75 unique words, it's a great book for pre- or early readers. The repetition allows for easy memorization of key phrases and the story is fun and engaging for preschoolers.

The Craft - Yarn Apples

I found this craft on Makes and Takes and thought it was too adorable (and easy!) not to share with you.


Makes and Takes provides a detailed tutorial on how to make these, so I'll let you visit those fabulous ladies for the full instructions. Basically, you wrap yarn around 2" x 5" piece of cardboard until it looks thick and fluffy. While the yarn is still on the cardboard, slide a brown pipe cleaner between the yarn and cardboard and twist together, tying off the yarn. Slip out the cardboard and twist the pipe cleaner up and around so it closes on the entire loop of yarn. Now you can fluff out your apple and create your stem. Add a bit of green pipe cleaner for the leaves.


To stack your apples "up on top" simply insert a thin pencil into one apple and continue to add apples to your liking. Now see if you can balance 10 on your head! BTW - I think these would make great pumpkins as well; just use orange yarn instead of red.

Edit: I'm linking up this older post to help celebrate Dr. Suess' Birthday at 123 & ABC Learning!