All About Our Apple Week!

 As my kiddos tasted their apples, they completed a Tasty Recording Sheet. The students first gave their opinion on taste and then rated the apple by “grading” it with a 1 (I did NOT like the apple.), a 2 (It was “okay.”), or a 3 (I really liked the apple!). This launched a great discussion about what an opinion is. 

 The students then chose their favorite apple and wrote an Apple Expert Opinion writing response. We worked on using the word “because” when we we are asked to explain why. 

 We graphed our favorite apples on our class bulletin board. As you can see from the photograph below, Granny Smith was definitely the winner!

 Students then used our pictograph to create a personal bar graph of our class’ favorite kind of apple. This page can be found in my Apple Unit by clicking here.

 We combined our reading with science one day, as we explored the favorite story, “The Little Red House with No Doors and No Windows.” Students completed a guided lab report as we listened and discussed the story. At the end of the “experiment,” they discovered the secret to the apple! This lab report is also in my Apple Unit. 

 Of course, we read lots of informational books about apples. As we read, we added our details and knowledge to our class Apple Facts anchor chart.

 During our reading mini lesson, we used my nonfiction apple passage from my Interactive Reading Passages: Fall Edition pack.  It contains paired passages that combine vocabulary, comprehension, and fluency. It also contains an Interactive Notebook feature within each passage. 

 We used A Cupcake for the Teacher’s Johnny Appleseed craftivity for our apple orchard informational writing pieces!  The kids did an amazing job on these writing pieces, and they look adorable in our hallway!

 We practiced sequenced narrative writing using the apple printable from my Narrative Writing Practice Pack. These little writing stories are really helping my kids focus on writing complete sentences with capitals and punctuation. 

 No Apple Week would be complete without a trip to the apple orchard! We are super lucky because our school is in WALKING DISTANCE to a real live apple orchard! It’s great! We had a fun walk to the orchard. I had taught my kids some fun apple songs, and we sang our little hearts out the whole way there!

 We made homemade applesauce! Yum!

 I had to explain to the kids that our applesauce would not look like the applesauce at the store. They were great sports and gobbled it right up. Our room smelled delicious!

 As we made our applesauce, we completed a recipe for homemade applesauce. The students were so engaged with each step of this writing process, because they could not wait to complete the next part of our applesauce recipe! They also loved taking this recipe home and getting to share it with their families.