Research on Apples

Research on apples:
I have been observing my students eating snacks for a month now. I have thoroughly enjoyed watching them eat. Among all the snacks apples are the only ones that they really love eating down to the core! So, since this month’s theme is Farming, we seized the opportunity to do a little research on Apples, which followed on nicely from classroom work we had done on the Tree/ parts of the tree/ fruits/ seeds.
Our class walked to Trader Joe’s yesterday morning. Each child got an umbrella. I showed them how it worked. Some of them had never held one before. (We could have even just gone with our jackets and hoodies because it was only drizzling, but the umbrellas were so much fun, we couldn’t resist them!) When we arrived, a volunteer named Skip from TJ welcomed us in and gave us a grand tour. Our children had many questions to ask about apples. We had already had a good discussion prior to going there!


We discovered all kinds of things about Apples. Some were geographical facts. (Did you know that apples come in more than 300 varieties, some that come from Michigan and the USA and many that come from other countries? Trader Joe’s had apples from Fiji. So later we looked at our globe and found Fiji, which is closer to Australia than America. This led to a great discussion about transportation.) Some were facts about health and nutrition. Ask you child about the healthy benefits of eating apples! Some were mathematical: we discovered that Trader Joe’s prices its apples individually. The children had fun figuring out the difference in price between an organic apple (59c) and a regular one (49c). Then we found out that there are specialty apples that are sold for much higher prices. Every week they have a specialty apple. This week’s special was Honey Rise apple from upstate New York. One apple costs $ 1.29. When the children heard this they said, “Oh my!” It was very sweet to see their reaction.

At the end of the tour, Skip gave each of our students an apple and a balloon. They all shook his hand and thanked him. The children all looked very satisfied after accomplishing so much. Then they picked up their umbrellas opened them and walked back beautifully with the balloons as well. Since we did not have balloons for all the students at SK, we did a little experiment and let the balloons fly. We enjoyed watching them go high… high… and higher
After our trip, we came back and studied the texture of the apples. Then the children looked at the apple and drew apples. We then cut apples; children all looked at the apples as if they had never seen one before. Then they printed yellow and red apples with paint- some got core design, some got stars!


For afternoon snack students washed their apples and then sat down to eat them. Before they bit into it I asked them, what does it sound like when you bite the apple?


This is what they said -
Ocean /rustle of leaves/ biting into a carrot/breaking of a branch/walking into a bridge/turning off the light.

As they were eating I asked them what part they were eating. Which was their favorite?
They all said Golden Delicious, excepting one who said Granny Smith because it was sour. Then we talked about the Five Senses.

I have thoroughly enjoyed this project as much as my students. It was a very special morning. It was a truly interdisciplinary experience, bringing together math, geography, science, art, creative language, discussion skills, manners and social skills, and many other aspects of learning. I am very proud of my students, and all the wonderful work they did!