Adventures in a Messy Life

Hands on learning for active learners

  • Home page
    • Start Here
    • About Us
    • Get all of the posts now!
    • Disclosure and other blogging information
  • Homeschooling
    • Homeschool Curriculum
    • Why I homeschool (comments from a former teacher)
    • Homeschooling and the Holidays
  • History and geography
    • Ancient History Lessons
    • Modern History lessons
    • American History Lessons
    • LEGO history
  • Science
  • Bible Curriculum
  • STORE

Preschool Apple Unit

July 22, 2020 Ticia 1 Comment

You know what every kid in the world learns about at some point in their life? Apples! I remember when I was teaching 1st grade we had an apple unit, and I remember the pre-k teacher had a preschool apple unit, and there was almost certainly a unit with the kinder kids and I know when I taught 2nd grade there was a nutrition unit that had some apples in it. So kids get to learn about apples A LOT. So when my kids went through the My Father’s World Kindergarten curriculum and there was a kindergarten apple unit, I was ready. Of course, I also included my preschooler, so this also became a homeschool preschool apple unit.

why child why did you eat the chapstick during the apple preschool unit

This all came up because I’m updating old posts, and my original preschool apple unit post (which I’ve since deleted because it was so crazy) was a mess, and I loved the ideas, but really don’t think everyone wanted to also hear all about how my daughter found the flavored chapstick and ate half a tube at one point.

(There are affiliate links in here)

Preschool apple unit great for homeschoolers!

Apple books

Because every unit I teach always starts with a book list. That’s me, I love my books. I’m also going to say there’s a pretty good chance your library has some of these books, if you’re local to me (Austin area), I’ve put a printable copy in the subscriber library in call number order. But, you want to find a book or two on how apples grow, and apple farmers, then make sure you have “How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World,” and “Ten Apples Up On Top” and from there you’re golden.

  • From apple trees to cider, please!*
  • Aa, a was an apple pie: an English nursery rhyme- Amazon hasn’t even heard of this book at my library, such a shame because it’s cute
  • Edward Lear’s A was Once an Apple Pie– oh well, it’s heard of this fun alphabet book
  • Apple Pie ABC– this is SOOOO cute!
  • Amelia Bedelia’s First Apple Pie– I love Amelia Bedelia, and I didn’t know this book existed
  • How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World– I LOVE this book, it’s great to use with most elementary age kids for geography, that’s probably why it’s a Five in a Row book
  • An Apple Pie for Dinner
  • Apple Farmer Annie– this is a great book, and I loved it so much when the kids were little
  • One Red Apple*
  • Apple Fractions– this is in the same vein as the Hershey fractions and a couple other books like this
  • The Apple Pie Tree– huh, this used to be a classic and it looks like it’s out of print now, sadness
  • From Seed to Apple*- also out of print, but at my library
  • Apple Harvest*- I’m not doing too good with these books, but it’s giving you an idea of what to look for
  • From Seed to Apple Tree*- FINALLY! It’s still in print and super cute!
  • Ten Apples Up On Top– the classic Dr. Seuss book, great for rhyming and math lessons

** all of these books are on the apple life cycle, my library has loads of books, so pick the one you particularly like, or be like me and grab several different ones that approach it from different ways.

I just realized I left off the Gail Gibbons Apples book from my book list. That is a tragedy.

apple book list for a preschool apple unit

Fun apple recipes, every preschool apple unit has some

One advantage of homeschooling preschool is the ability to spend so much time in the kitchen, and so during our preschool apple unit I was able to make oodles of apple recipes.

making apple pie for how to make an apple pie and see the world

  • Making applesauce with preschoolers
  • Make an apple pie and see the world– this is a great multi-level book
  • Apple muffin recipe

 

Apple reading ideas for our preschool apple unit

Since this was done in conjunction with the boys’ kindergarten, we had “words to remember” for apples, so I wrote it down and they drew an apple.

apple words to remember preschool apple unit

But aside from that…

Ten Apples Up On Top is a great opportunity to look at rhyming. I like Dr. Seuss books.

 

Fun apple crafts

decorating applesauce ornaments

Applesauce ornaments– there is a very important lesson at the bottom of this post

Apple nursery rhyme– I went back and forth on putting this in a reading section, or math, but there’s so much you can do with this nursery rhyme

preschool apple unit

Apples and Social Studies (and a little bit of science)

Johnny Appleseed lesson– I originally classified this as a science lesson, but in all honesty, it’s a bit more of history because of how I used it, or contemplation really.

How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World lesson finding locations on the map

Using the book “How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World,” we had a fun geography lesson as we wandered all over the world and learned where the different ingredients come from.

Finally, we went on a field trip to the grocery store, and not just any grocery store, but Whole Foods which has DOZENS of different apples to try. This led to a lesson on where people get their food and community helpers like your grocers and farmers. Which leads perfectly into a really true science lesson:

 

Apple science

There are two big science lessons in our preschool apple unit:

  1. Making applesauce has a lot of science in it as you learn about irreversible change. Once you’ve cooked the apples, you can’t change them back into whole apples, and how heat can change things (thank you Sid the Science Kid).
  2. An apple life cycle. If you notice a large number of the books I’ve got up there have the life cycle of an apple, and it’s a great way to get a mini botany lesson in. This is also when we first did my preschool botany lesson.
  3. Talking about that botany lesson, take some time to take cut the apple in half from top to bottom, and look at the seeds in the apple.
  4. We used the fruit and vegetable matching cards from Homeschool Creations to work on classifying fruits and vegetables.

Apple math, you knew a preschool apple unit had to have it

If you use Ten Apples Up On Top, of course this gives you a chance to practice counting to ten.

Then of course you can create patterns. I didn’t think of it at the time, but here’s a great add on activity for Ten Apples Up On Top. I also like this fine motor skill activity.

While you’re on that grocery store trip, pick up as many different apple types and try them, and graph which apples people like and which ones they don’t like.

 

More apple ideas

Way back when my kids were in preschool and we did this preschool apple unit, these are the ideas I had saved, but didn’t get to because there are always more ideas than there is time.

Or that’s true for me, I don’t know about you.

  • Apple prints– I almost did this same project but ran out of time.
  • apple bean bag– super duper cute
  • Apple Orchard– cute art project
  • Lots of apple ideas-more than you could ever do really, she did great research
  • Categorizing fruits and veggies in real life– my garden is just not that good.

And I’m going to leave you with the cutest picture of Princess from the original post, which I had captioned as “Isn’t she cute, black eye and all?”

cute picture of Princess from our preschool apple unit

I have no clue why she had a black eye or what the original injury was, but I love this picture.

More Preschool Fun

playing with itsy bitsy spider interactive book
Day 1 Creation Book preschool kinder
nursery rhyme book for preschool or kindergarten
Have a picnic in the family room kid activity
zoo animal preschool unit prek
  • Itsy Bitsy Spider Interactive Book
  • Days of Creation preschool craft book
  • Nursery Rhyme book for preschool
  • Picnic in the family room
  • Zoo preschool unit

reading and writing, STEM book list, botany, preschool

Comments

  1. Natalie PlanetSmarty says

    July 22, 2020 at 9:58 pm

    OMG, the pictures are SO adorable. I miss preschool age!

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Ticia Adventures in Mommydom Hi, I'm Ticia! This is the adventures of my family in life and learning. Follow along with us as we share our adventures. We're having a lot of fun and learning as we go.

Help!!!! I need to know:

Categories

300 books made into movies

Copyright © 2023 ·