A is for Apple

Continuing our fall fun, Isaiah's unit for MFW was A for Apples.

I had this tree trunk with contact paper up from a thankfulness tree (yes, from last Thanksgiving!), so I decided to (finally) clear it and use the idea I had seen for a Toddler Apple Tree Activity.  I cut out leaves from construction paper instead of using real leaves and cut up some pipe cleaners and put out a variety of red pom poms.

One of the activities in our curriculum was to gather several varieties of apples and graph how many of each kind you have.  Since most of the varieties here are basically red (green ones are sometimes available but quite expensive), we had to use descriptors other than color to sort the types.  I also decided to use dot markers instead of pieces of paper to mark the graph.

The big quantity of apples for the activity was too tempting to resist for building.  Once older brother built a fortress for his guy, it was inevitable that little one would need to try to follow suit.

 I got the idea to do an Apple Observation recording sheet from Mrs. Lee's Kinder Kids, but hers wasn't available to download, so I made one of my own with a few changes.  We measured how many cubes tall our apples were.

 We also used the simple balance we brought back from the States this summer to see how many cubes would weigh the same as our apples.  They were pretty big apples, so we actually barely fit enough cubes in the container to balance it!

Here is Isaiah's completed Apple Observation Sheet.  

Making printables is not my strength, and I'm still learning a lot with basic formatting and sharing, so I had trouble sharing the file here.  It's nothing fancy, but if you happen to want a copy, I'd be happy to email it to you!

The boys got REALLY into helping make applesauce.  I only let them use table knives, so it was a bit challenging, but they worked really hard at cutting up the peeled apples.  And, they LOVED the applesauce.  I hadn't really thought about it because it isn't really available to buy here, but it was actually pretty simple to make, and they really enjoyed it, so we'll have to make some more soon!