Theme Units Made Easy: Apples

 

I love doing theme units with my kids. Theme units are a great way to incorporate many subjects into one unit study. They lend themselves well to a single homeschooler, or a family with children of multiple grades and ages equally easily. They also allow your child the time to focus and really learn about something thoroughly, which lends itself to a better understanding of that subject.

One of my favorite themes that we always do in fall is apples. It is a great September theme, but we have done it in the past in October and November as well. No matter when you incorporate it into your homeschool, your children are sure to enjoy these easy theme unit ideas. Remember, a theme unit can be as short as a couple of days, or can be as long as a month, depending on the subject and how deep you want to go into it. allowing for maximum flexibility in your homeschool. Be sure to check out my recipe for homemade applepear sauce at the end of the post!

Some of the activities we enjoy doing when doing an apple theme unit include:

ART

Apple prints

Making an apple by painting a paper plate red (or green or yellow) and adding a brown construction paper stem on top to show a whole apple, and then doing this easy paper plate craft to show the inside.

Thrifty Scissors blog links to over 100 apple craft ideas  in this post that are more than doable that your kids would love.

SCIENCE

Learn the the seasons of an apple tree

Make an Apple-cano

Put hands on science into your homeschool with one of these easy experiments
GEOGRAPHY

Read How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World

Learn about the different states where apples are grown for export and find them on a US map

HISTORY

Learn about Johnny Appleseed

For older, tech savvy kids, have them do a timeline on the history of Apple, the company

LANGUAGE ARTS

Write a report on Johnny Appleseed

Compare / Contrast the different types of apples (regions they are grown, color, taste, size, shape)

Write out a list of everything made with apples, then alphabetize the list.

Write a Haiku about an apple

Visit the Vermont Apples website; have your student copy some of the apple facts found there (younger children) or have them research and write a paragraph about apples (older kids).

Apples varieties word search

MATH

Ask all family members what their favorite kind or color of apples are. Make a bar graph showing how many people chose each type. You could also do this with apple juice versus apple cider.

Bake an apple pie together (a great way to incorporate measurement and fractions into a theme unit)

SPEECH/LANGUAGE

As a speech language pathologist, I love the game Apples To Apples . It also comes in a junior edition for younger children. I use this game often in my language groups.

Use two apples to help your children understand the effects of bullying with this easy lesson on bullying. Use it as a springboard to talk to your children about how to be an advocate for others.

READING RECOMMENDATIONS

These are a few of the books I enjoy using for  read a louds that go great with an apples theme.

 

“How to make an Apple Pie and see the World” is a great book. The reader gets a great geography lesson, learning about which ingredients originally come from where.  My kids always enjoy baking an apple pie with me the same week that we read this book.

“How do Apples Grow” is a wonderful science book which teaches about apples, their growing process, and is very detailed.

Gail Gibbons also makes a great book that shares all the details of how apples grow. (We love all the Gail Gibbons books…she has some great ones for Halloween studies, including The Pumpkin Book, Bats, and Owls.

I also like “Ten Apples up On top” for preschool age children. It includes rhymes and learning to count, and also comes in a board book format for little hands that aren’t always so gentle.

RECIPE

Homemade Chunky Apple-Pear Sauce

I love this recipe that incorporates pears in with the apples, that is easy to make and perfect for fall.

Ingredients:

7 apples, peeled, cored, and quartered *

3 pears, peeled, cored, and quartered*

*I like to use either a mix of Golden and Delicious Granny Smith Apples with yellow pears, OR a mix of Macintosh and Fuji apples with red pears)

4 tbsp lemon juice

1 long cinnamon stick, about 3 inches worth

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 c. water

1/2 tsp. salt

Directions

Once peeled, cored, and quartered, place apples and pears into a large pot. Add  the lemon juice, cinnamon stick, sugar, salt, and water. Bring to a boil on high heat, then lower the temperature, cover , and  simmer for approximately 25 min (until the apples and pears are  tender and cooked through.) Once they are cooked through, remove from heat. Remove cinnamon stick. Use a potato masher (or even a large serving fork) to mash to desired consistency. Add more sugar if you like it sweeter!

Thanks for stopping by today,