Aa Apple

Today we finished our apple unit. Without a doubt, this has been Hannah's favorite unit so far! The main reason is because of a movie we found at the library called Vrrrooommm! Apple Farming for Kids. Understandably, this sounded to me like a great addition to our unit, but I wasn't sure how Hannah was going to react to it since it was a non-fiction movie. HA! I think she watched it six times the day we checked it out, and then she wanted to show it to Greg when he got home from work at 8:00 that night! It was really a fantastic movie loaded with great information, from pollination to picking to packaging.

When we weren't staring at the TV screen, we were in the kitchen making something with apples! It started on Friday (the day we checked out the movie), when the girls and I broke out the apple corer/peeler/slicer for the first time (loads of fun, by the way!) and cored/peeled/sliced apples for them to eat while they watched their movie.

On Saturday morning, we made homemade applesauce and homemade apple muffins. Both recipes were in the back of one of the picture books we checked out from the library. As Hannah was helping me make the muffins, she poured the sugar in the bowl, then she looked at me and said, "This is so great! I can't believe you're letting us have junk food for breakfast!"

Good thing I got a picture of Hannah smiling before she ate her applesauce because she was not impressed when she took a bite!

Here's Hannah being typically cautious about trying a new food. Not to worry, though...she loved it!

And here's Millie being typically wholehearted about eating in general. We'll definitely be in Weight Watchers together someday!

On Monday we sampled six types of apples to compare their flavors and textures. (Yes, I know there are seven apples in the picture. I accidentally bought two Galas.)

Here are Hannah's descriptions of each type of apple:
Red Delicious. Sweet, red, soft, lots of skin.
Granny Smith. Tart, green, crunchy, thin skin.
Golden Delicious. Yellow, sweet, juicy, delicious and good, thin skin.
Fuji. Yellowish-reddish, sweet, skinny skin, feel lots of water, a little sweet.
Gala. Reddish-yellowish, looks like fire, sweet, soft.
Braeburn. Yellowish-reddish, soft, a little sweet.

Our slicer cuts each apple into 12 slices, so we talked about halves and quarters while we were eating our apples; and we also counted the number of seeds inside each core. We noticed that some of the apples had 10 seeds (2 seeds in each of the 5 compartments), but some of them had fewer. Interestingly, the ones that were missing seeds were lopsided; they were flat on the side with the missing seeds.

On Tuesday we read two books and watched one movie about Johnny Appleseed. Believe it or not, I actually deviated from the curriculum (WHAT?!) and worked with Hannah to make a lapbook. This was was more fun than I ever could have imagined, but I'll post about that later!

On Wednesday, we made a collage of different kinds of fruits. My teacher's manual said to use magazines, but I have such a hard time cutting up magazines! Plus, how much fruit are you really going to find in Family Fun or Ladies Home Journal? So I quickly put on my technology teacher hat and taught Hannah how to use Google images and Microsoft Word to make a collage. (Hey, you can take the technology teacher out of the classroom, but you can't take the technology out of the teacher...or...well, something like that.) But the real highlight of her day was when I let her print it...ooooooooh!

Thursday we took the day off to evacuate to Grandma and Grandpa's and to get a little R&R; and today, as we waited for the hurricane to make landfall, we did a couple of fun art projects to pass the time. We read "A New House" in Arnold Lobel's Grasshopper on the Road, after which Hannah drew a picture of Worm's new house. (He has a kitchen downstairs on the right side and a bedroom upstairs on the left side.)

We also made a tree from an outline of Hannah's hand and decorated it with fingerprint apples. Hannah then drew a bird sitting in a nest, and we glued a sweet poem onto it.

Our curriculum always integrates the Bible lessons into the science lessons; and since we studied apples this week, we spent a lot of time discussing the fruits of the spirit. Hannah's special words to remember were "If I stay in Jesus, I will have much fruit." (Here's a picture of her wearing her badge.)

We paid close attention all week long to see when we saw the fruits of the spirit in people. We made a small poster of an apple tree, then cut out nine small apples that each had one of the fruits of the spirit written on it. As we saw each one of the fruits lived out, we added it to our apple tree. We saw self-control when Hannah wanted to take a toy from Millie but didn't; love when Millie gave Mommy a hug; joy when Hannah found out we were going to Grandma and Grandpa's; faithfulness when Mommy said we could play a game together and we did; patience when Mommy allowed Millie to help stir the apple muffin mix; goodness when a lady at the store turned in some money she found on the floor; gentleness when Hannah and Millie pet Rascal; kindness when Daddy offered to help Mr. Chris and Mrs. Jayne get ready for the hurricane; and peace when Mommy and Daddy were not worried about what might happen to their house in the hurricane.

May the peace continue as Ike gets closer!