All About Apples Literature Focus Unit By: Macie Harris

Literature Selection Fiction: How Do Apples Grow? By: Betsy Maestro

Ten Red Apples By: Pat Hutchins

Johnny Appleseed By: Jodie Shepherd

Up, Up, Up! It’s Apple Picking Time By: Jody Fickes Shapiro

Fiction: Ten Apples Up On Top! By: Dr. Suess

Apples, Apples, Apples By: Nancy Elizabeth Wallace

Bad Apple

By: Edward Hemingway

Autumn Harvest By: Alvin Tresselt

Fiction: How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World By: Marjorie Priceman

Apples and Pumpkins By: Anne Rockwell

The Giving Tree By: Shel Silverstein

Fiction: The Apple Orchard Riddle By: Margaret McNamara

Amelia Bedelia’s First Apple Pie By: Herman Parish

Applesauce Season By: Eden Ross Lipson

Nonfiction: Apples

By: Ken Robbins

Apples for Everyone By: Jill Esbaum

Eating Apples

By: Gail Saunders-Smith

An Apple’s Life By: Acorn

Nonfiction:

Let’s Cook with Apples! By: Nancy Tuminelly

The Seasons of Arnold’s Apple Tree By: Gail Gibbons

Apple Fractions By: Jerry Pallotta

Little Georgia and the Apples By: Carolivia Herron

Poetry: • • •

Students will create a color poem with the colors of the apples—red, green, and yellow. Students will develop a five-senses poem. Students will enjoy Shel Silverstein poetry books.

Every Thing On It By: Shel Silverstein

A Light in the Attic By; Shel Silverstein

Where the Sidewalk Ends By: Shel Silverstein

Johnny Appleseed By: Reeve Lindbergh

Poems on Fruits & Odes to Veggies By: Judith Natelli McLaughlin

Theme Study • Students will take part in a thematic unit on apples. This unit will integrate reading and writing with social studies, science, mathematics, art, music, and physical education. • Students will develop an understanding of the different kinds of apples, the different parts of an apple, the life cycle of an apple tree, the time of year when apples are harvested, the health benefits of apples, and multiple ways to eat apples.

Language Arts: Reading Activities • Students will read various fiction and non-fiction books and poetry about apples through silent reading, partner reading, guided reading, reading aloud, and reader’s theater. • Students will create their own narrative story about their trip to an apple orchard and read it to a partner. • Students will share a dialogue journal about The Season’s of Arnold’s Apple Tree with a partner. • Students will share their apple poems and narrative stories to a partner. • Teacher will read aloud Apple’s for Everyone by Jill Esbaum. • Teacher will read aloud The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein as well as many other apple books. • Teacher will read Ten Apples Up On Top! By Dr. Suess.

Language Arts: Writing Activities • • • • • • • • • •

Students will practice descriptive writing about their experience at the apple orchard. Students will write and illustrate about what kind of apple they like best on a class chart. Students will create a poem describing an apple through their five senses. Students will write their favorite way to eat an apple. Students will write about and make predictions about the changes of the apples’ color after it is left set after it’s been cut. Students will write about what they would ask an apple tree for after listening to the teacher read The Giving Tree. Students will create a RANN chart as a class about apples—write one fact that they think they know about apples before reading informational literature, then put on T-Chart and after literature is over they see if what they thought they knew about apples was true or false. Students will make a diagram through illustration of the parts of an apple. Students will illustrate their ten apples on top of their own head after listening to Dr. Suess’ story Ten Apples Up

on Top!

Students will make an apple recipe book, including the homemade applesauce recipe of the teacher’s to take home to their families. (Families will also be welcome to sharing some of their favorite apple recipes.)

Language Arts: Speaking Activities • • • • •

Students will join in on grand conversations and talk about their favorite kind of apple. Students will share stories about their families favorite apple recipes. Students will share their poems with a partner. Students will share their apple stories. Students will participate in a literature discussion circle about Bad Apple by Edward Hemingway. • Students will each get to eat an apple and have a descriptive discussion on how their apple tasted. • Students will play the game Don’t Spill the Apples! to work on sounding out and blending words. • Students will make verbal predictions about the changes of an apple once it is cut.

Language Arts: Listening Activities • Students will listen to audio versions of apple literature. • Students will listen as an apple farmer (if not possible the teacher) discusses the different seasons of an apple tree, when apple harvesting begins, and the life cycle of an apple tree. • Students will listen respectfully to their peers when trading journals and sharing their apple poems. • Students will listen to their partner share their narrative story. • Students will listen to songs about apples. • Students will listen to the teacher as she reads stories to the whole class. • Students will listen to the farmer talk about what efforts are made during harvest and where the apples go after harvest is over.

Language Arts: Viewing Activities • Students will view pictures and real replicas of different kinds of apples. Compare and contrast. • Students will view and appreciate the diagrams and art projects. • Students will watch a video on a an apple’s life cycle (see technology ideas) • Students will view the changes in an apples color after it has been cut. • Students will view the growth process of their very own apple tree. • Students will investigate an actual live apple tree and will be able to pick an apple. • Students will take a field trip to an apple orchard and meet a farmer that harvests apples every year.

Language Arts: Visually Representing Activities • • • • • • • • •

Students will make various pieces of art work displaying apples. Students will collaboratively make applesauce and write an applesauce recipe. Students will display their poems in an artistic presentation. Students will make their own class apple tree with an apple with each student’s picture on it. Students will create an apple pie out of Play-Doh in a sensory table. Teacher will provide rolling pins, pie tins, fake apples, and red, apple scented Play-Doh for students to explore with. Recipe Booklet. Students will create a 4 seasons mural visual displaying the life cycle of an apple tree. Teacher will take pictures of students trying to balance apples on their heads like the characters in Dr. Suess’ book did. Teacher will make an “apple word wall” displaying new vocabulary the students learn throughout the unit.

Science Activities • • • •

• • • • •

Students will investigate the life cycle of an apple/apple tree by watching videos and drawing class mural of each season. Students will identify the different types of apples. The class will have an apple tasting party. Students will study what happens to an apple when it is cut and left on the counter. Students will then participate in an experiment with lemon juice and lime juice to see if that helps stop the browning process. Students will study why apples bruise so easily. Students will work in a small group to make an apple volcano (teacher will cut out the center of the apples and each student will be a part of making the scented baking soda and then pouring the baking soda and vinegar into the center of the apple to formulate a apple volcano (each student will have a chance to erupt their volcano). Students will diagram the different parts of an apple. Students will plant their own apple seeds and other fruit and vegetable seeds for a school-wide project. Students will record the growth patterns of their apple seeds and other fruit and vegetable seeds in their science journals.

Mathematics Activities • Teacher will read Apple Fractions by Jerry Pallotta. • Teacher will demonstrate fractions when cutting the apples in half, thirds, etc. • Students will make a graph of the number of students who like yellow, red, or green apples and a separate graph for who like the specific types of apples. • Students will measure how tall and the circumference of their apple is and record it. • Students will weigh their apples and record it. • Students will use apple counters to help with addition and subtraction problems. • Students will design an apple orchard—trees planted in rows (focusing on area and array). • Students will identify symmetry when they cut their apple in half using it to make an apple shape with. • Students will learn about the measurements used in an apple sauce recipe.

Social Studies Activities/Diversity Activity • Students will discover that apples are grown in almost every state throughout the United States. • Students will learn about Johnny Appleseed as his life as an American Pioneer-Teacher will read aloud Johnny Appleseed by Jodie Shepherd. • Students will research the cost of apples, apple juice, apple pie, and research the profit for farmers after harvesting and selling the apples. • Students will research and look at the oldest apple tree in the United States and then locate it on the map. • Students will participate in a grand conversation about diversity and how apples may all look & taste different and have different characteristics on the outside, but inside they all look exactly the same. (In discussion relating this to all varieties of people). “Don’t judge an apple by it’s skin color.” • Talk about Apple Technology Products—who created it and how the Mac Computer got its name.

Music Activities • Students will listen to recorded songs about apples (YouTube songs on technology page). • Students will sing a variety of apple songs put into well-known tunes (song list attached as word document). • Students will create a class apple song using the descriptive words they wrote and talked about. • Students will learn the apple song “Way Up High in an Apple Tree.” • Students will make an apple shaped tambourine. • Students will participate in the musical apple pass. The teacher will play music and the students will pass the apple around the circle and when the music stops the student holding the apple has to sit down.

Art Activities • Students will build a class apple tree out of card board, brown paper, Styrofoam balls (for the apples), and green paper for the cut out leaves. This will be placed in the literacy center so students can read under the apple tree. • Students will design their own apple out of a variety of materials given out by the teacher. • Students will display their diagram of their apple and its parts. • Students will use half an apple as a tool for painting and stamping apple shapes. • Students will create a Johnny Appleseed Fall poetry craft using each letter of the word APPLE to describe an apple. • Students will draw 10 apples on top of the picture of their heads (pictures taken by the teacher). • Students will build mini apple trees out of toilet paper rolls and crumpled green paper with Q-tips to make dots for the apples. • Students will participate in apple art bowling (students will cover their apple in paint and bowl their apple onto a long sheet of white paper to make a design and to knock over mini bowling pins or water bottles also work). This is an outside project.

Physical Education/Health Strategies • Students will practice balancing skills while trying to balance an apple or more on their heads during a relay race! • Students will play apple bean bag toss (with apple bean bags). • Students will play “hot apple” (like hot potato) with the class. The students will say a letter to spell apple and whoever gets the last letter (e) has to sit down. • Students will participate in an apple scavenger hunt. • Students will research the importance of living a healthy lifestyle of eating healthy fruits such as apples. • Students will participate in the ½ mile Apple-Dash as a class!

Technology • http://www.teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=134151 (Life Cycle of Apples) • http://www.bestapples.com/kids/index.shtml • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNKH-Ayp2mc (I Love Apples Song) • http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Dont-Spill-The-ApplesCVC-Words-Game-FUNdations-Connected-347473 (Don’t Let the Apples Spill game) • Audio books recommended for apples. • Digital photography • http://www.bpsfoundation.com/apple-dash • http://www.kidactivities.net/post/Apple-Themed-Games-and-OtherIdeas.aspx • http://www.learningstationmusic.com/blog/2012/09/25/apple-themeplanning-apple-songs-recipes-games-books-poems-art-and-activitiesgalore-2/ (Way Up High in an Apple Tree song lyrics and other activities) • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5wkPiBcc_4 (The Apple Song-gives the actual names of all the apples) • http://blog.reallygoodstuff.com/common-core-lesson-plan-johnnyappleseed-fall-poetry-craft/

Language Arts Strategies • • • • • • •

Activating background knowledge: Teacher will develop a RANN chart what students think they know about apples and apple trees and then the teacher will read All About Apples! And then students will decide if their knowledge was true or false. Brainstorming: students will think of things they know about apples and brainstorm the way an apple is made. They will also brainstorm the many different foods that include apples. Connecting: students will relate topics such as how they eat apples at home and recipes their families use that include apples, students will relate the variety of apples to the variety of people in the world and how they may look different on the outside, but we are all people in the inside. Predicting and Monitoring: students will predict if the apples will turn brown faster with or without lime and lemon juice poured on the apple. Playing with Language: students will use creative and descriptive language through poems, journals, & stories. Revising: students will make changes to written activities. Visualizing: students will draw pictures in their minds of an apple/apple tree life cycle.

Grouping Patterns • Large group: grand conversations, Shel Silverstein poetry examples, poetry, fiction, and non-fiction literature read aloud reading, creating KWL Chart, field trip to an apple tree orchard, physical education activities, singing and creating apple songs, musical apple pass, creating class apple tree, making applesauce, locating oldest apple tree on a map, graphing, lemon and lime group experiment, creating class apple recipe booklet, seasons mural visual on bulletin board, investigate way apples bruise so easily, identifying different types of apples, learning about measurements of apple sauce recipe, learning about Johnny Appleseed’s life, apple word wall. • Small group: sharing work with peers, partner reading, creating apple volcanoes, sensory corner (making Play-Doh apple pie), measuring and weighing apples, apple art bowling, sharing apple poems and descriptions with one or two peers, researching cost of apples. • Individual: silent reading, listening activities, writing descriptions and poems, writing favorite way to eat an apple, writing narrative stories, sharing stories about their favorite family apple recipe, making apple art, identifying symmetry, using apple counters for addition and subtraction, making apple tree orchard by planting tree in rows, make an apple tambourine, make apple diagram of its parts.

Assessments • • • • • • • • • • •

Participation in grand conversations, music activities, and physical education activities. Observation of listening during conversations with whole group, small group, or with peers. Formative assessments throughout group discussions. 6 + 1 Writing Traits Rubric for writing activities (descriptions, poems, journal). RANN chart checklist. Science Journal checklist. Informal observation/ anecdotal notes of science experiments, small group discussions, math graphing, social studies/diversity activities. Checklist recording of measuring and weighing apple activity. Portfolio of art work: apples out of variety of materials, apple painting, apple diagrams, apple tree hand painting. Poetry numerical score sheet. P.E. Skills Checklist.

Miscellaneous • Literature Focus Unit Song list.docx

Johnny Appleseed poetry craft.

10 Apples Up on Top! craft.

Morning

Subject

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

L.A

-Grand Conversation about apples RANN Chart. -Teacher provides information on apples -Partner Reading on apple literature

-Teacher begins The Giving Tree -Writer’s Workshop: Students will write about what they would ask an apple tree for.

-Students share what they wrote about day before with a partner. -Ten Apples Up on Top! -After P.E. Activity students will write about how many apples they could balance

-Daily 5: Reading about apples -Teacher will read Johnny Appleseed Poem book. -Students will create a color poem using red, yellow, and green.

-Create our class apple song. -Students will talk and write about the star inside the apple. -Create a apple dish recipe book to bring home. -Make applesauce.

Art

-View all kinds of apples (names and colors) -Students will create an apple out of a variety of materials.

-Students will make a class apple tree out of cardboard and brown paper and create the apples with pictures of students’ faces on painted Styrofoam balls

-Students will take their picture and draw 10 apples up on top of their head. -Students will make apples out of Play-Doh and stack those on their heads.

-Students will create a Johnny Appleseed Fall Poetry craft.

-Painting with half an apple and a painting tool.

Music

Students will be introduced to the apple song: “Way Up High in an Apple Tree”

-Students will listen to multiple songs about apples.

-Apple Musical Pass

-Students will make apple shaped tambourines.

-Sing their class apple song.

Afternoon

Subject

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

P.E. (all

-Students will play apple bean bag toss.

- Students will play “hot apple”.

-Apple balancing relay race.

-Apple scavenger hunt.

-1/2 mile Community Apple Dash.

Math

-Apple counters to do addition and subtraction.

-Graphing the number of students who like red, green, or yellow apples. -Sorting apples by size.

-Measuring how tall and round their apples are -Weighing their apples.

-Teacher will read Apple Fractions. -Students will learn about measurements in apple dish recipes.

-Identify symmetry when they cut their apple in half.

Science

-Growth process of an apple and an apple tree. -Seasons of an apple tree. -Try the different types of apples.

-Investigate the life cycle of an apple tree. -Investigate why apples bruise so easily.

-Experiment with the browning of an apple when cut.

-Planting own apple seeds and other fruits for a school wide garden fruit patch.

-Apple Volcanoes

S.Studies

-Diversity lesson

-Research and discovery of where apples are grown throughout the U.S.

-Talk about Apple technology products and how computers got their name.

-Johnny Appleseed read aloud -Johnny Appleseed video

-Cont. on Johnny Appleseed -Research and look at where the oldest apple tree in the U.S. is found.

week students will learn about the healthy benefits of fruit)