Preschool Apple Unit

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.

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, 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.

Sigh, sometimes you just need an easy preschool day.

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Apple books

Because every unit I teach always starts with a booklist. 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 (sigh, Future Ticia 2023 misses that feature at the library, the current system does not have it). 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 of 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 well 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

Future Ticia 2023 wants to point out I have MORE apple books in the Preschool Botany picture booklist

** 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.

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 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.

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

• 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

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.

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?”

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

More Preschool Fun

• Itsy Bitsy Spider Interactive Book
• Days of Creation preschool craft book
• Nursery Rhyme book for preschool
• Picnic in the family room
• Zoo preschool unit