Happy almost Fall friends.
I wanted to take the time to share some of my favorite Apple Themed/Johnny Appleseed resources with you. Apples is one of my most favorite things to teach and I cannot wait until my little girl is a bit older so we can start having all sorts of apple themed fun.
The apples unit is such a fun hands on unit to teach. It is a thematic unit you can teach across the curriculum. Sorting apples is math. Testing the sinking/floating capabilities is science. Learning about Johnny Appleseed is history/social studies. Reading stories is literature. Now that is my kind of unit to teach.
One of the many activities that is great to do for any unit, is using graphic organizers. Teaching our students to organize their thoughts is a vital skill that they will need throughout life.
My thematic units include individual student graphic organizers as well as chart parts to complete the organizers as a class as well as vocabulary cards that feature real life pictures to display during the unit.
Labeling is a great skill for students to practice. Colored and black and white posters are included as well as two student labeling activities for both Johnny and Apples to allow for differentiation among students.
The Classroom “Big” books and student readers both read the same. The full colored version of the books (one for apples and one for Johnny) included real life pictures to make learning more fun. The student readers are in black and white to allow your students to follow along and then take the story home with them.
Real life pictures are a feature among the posters, vocabulary cards, and whole group chart parts included in this pack. Vocabulary cards for Johnny Appleseed include clipart by the very talented Melonheadz.
The unit also includes a variety of different ways to complete an Apple Life Cycle activity. An individual student cut-and-paste activity, as well as a colored and black and white version to complete an apple life cycle poster, are included. This will allow you as the teacher to use which one works best for your students and your classroom.
My most favorite part of the entire apples unit is being able to complete hands on activities with the students. Students LOVE using apples and when they realize they are actually learning their little minds are blown :) This section of the unit includes a variety of different pages to perform a variety of different apple investigations. Students will have the opportunity to bring in an apple from home in order to help complete the activities. A letter to parents asking for apples is included. Students will work on sorting the apples, determine if the apples sink or float, determine if the apple seeds sink or float, taste 3 different colors of apples to see which is the class favorite, poll the class on their like/dislike of apple pie, make predictions, and more. Graphing pages and classroom chart/graph parts are included in the unit. An apple investigations booklet is also included (2 to each page) so students can compile all of their data/findings in one easy to locate place. This book also includes pages for students to describe an apple using their 5 senses.
Students get to use various forms of writing throughout the unit as well. They will get to make crock pot applesauce (recipe included) as well as read and write about their apple and apple sauce making experience. A family involved class apple pie recipe book activity is included that you can choose to do with your class as well.
To finish off our apple unit, we love to make crafts and I recently created a Johnny Appleseed that I cannot wait to make with my little girl someday. He is in a separate pack and can be found by clicking on the picture below.
This unit pack is 144 pages long and PACKED with hands on learning fun. You can find it (and see a detailed preview of the file) in my TPT store by clicking on the picture below or any of the pictures above. I hope that you can find some inspiration for you classroom studies on Apples.
