Apples, Apples, Apples!

Apples of our eyes!

This week was all about apples.  We have learned a lot about apples and further deepened our understanding of plants, fruit, and the seasons.

First off, students noticed that apples grew on our apple tree!  That little apple in the upper left was a stubborn one, it kept falling off the tree after school.  As you might know, I'm not the tallest teacher, so let's just say it might be staying up there for a while now.

Here are some of the “a-peeling” activities we did…

We graphed which color apple we like best and also filled in our own bar graphs based on the whole class. 

We learned about Fact and Opinions and what the differences are.  Then we analyzed, discussed, and sorted the statements about apples and whether they were fact or opinion.  You can get those from Rachelle by clicking Here!

We labeled the parts of an apple tree.  This was easy for them to do looking at our "apple" tree in our classroom and after reading several apple books. 

We also labeled the parts of an apple.  This is our class one we did.  If you keep scrolling down though, you will see their individual apple labeling.

We did a lot of sensory writing based on apples in our Writer's Notebooks- including sight, touch, and taste.  For taste, we tasted apples and then used taste words (adjectives) to describe them- I wrote them down in a make-shift circle/apple map as they said them.  I am not the best photographer, so some of the words got cropped out of the picture.  This activity led to great vocabulary (like bland and tangy) and also to some great writing on truly describing our apples.

We also made an apple diamonte poem (or cinquain) using all of the different ways to describe an apple from our lessons in our Writer's Notebook.  The poem went like this:

Apple

2 words that describe the flavor (taste)

3 words that describe what it looks like (sight)

2 words that describe how it feels (touch)

Another word for apple -most student came up with fruit or manzana (apple in spanish)

Here is one student's (this is the very front of their apple)

 
Then when you open it up on the inside, it shows their labeling of the apple that they made and a picture I took of them posing with the apple.

Here's a few more...

I love the very artistic pose he chose!

As you can tell, they really thought about their pose! Love it!

Here are just a few books we read...

After reading Amelia Bedelia's First Apple Pie, they did their own Apple Pie Graph that I made based on what we knew the students liked for their favorite apples. 

Here's a copy below in case you would like one. Click on the picture or the link below.  

Click here to get your own. 

We also found the perfect math for this week to reinforce parts to whole. Click Here to get Appleseed Math from Diane and Kelly at Made for First Grade.

It also happened to be short o week for spelling.  We remember it is like when you go to the doctor and they tell you to open real wide and say, "Aww!"  I happen to do that when I eat popcorn.  You know how you throw it up in the air and try to catch it in your mouth?  I always say, "Aww" before I catch it for some reason. If you see your child do it....I have no idea where they got the idea from! Anyways, this led to a quick lesson on short o. They came up with what else could be in the popcorn! They came up with some interesting ones...I would be a little scared to find a fox or a frog in my popcorn, but it sure would be memorable! 

Have a great weekend!
Mrs. Martin