Color Book: RED

RED –  Apples

For our apple unit, we begin by reading two great books:

Apple Farmer Annie by Monica Wellington (A great story about all the different things you can do with apples.  She harvests them, sorts them, makes pies, and juice and apple sauce, and then sells the apples and apple products at market)

The Apple Pie Tree by Zoe Hall  (this story follows the growth of apples from blossom to fruit)

I encourage each child to bring an apple from home.  I always have a few extras on hand for those who forget.  We start by counting them and sorting them (color, size, stem/no stem, sticker/no sticker, etc.). 

Then we use the apples to make apple sauce and apple prints. 

Making Apple Prints: (Of course save these for the color book)

Be sure to use at least two apples and cut one horizontally and the other one vertically.  You’ll be able to create two different types of prints.  To aid the students in grasping the slippery apples , I use a potato peeler to make two small holes to use as “handles”.  If you just squirt a small amount of paint onto a paper plate and rub the apple around, this seems to produce good prints.  Another alternative is to use a foam brush and paint the apple halves before making a print.

Making Apple Sauce:

I use my handy dandy "Apple Peeler, Corer, Slicer" machine to whip right through the prep process.  The kids LOVE using this machine.

We put all the apples in a pot and add the other ingredients (a little water, a little sugar, and a dash of cinnamon. The variety of apples make the finished product tastier!

While the kids are helping we sing:

Making Applesauce Song (to the tune of Skip to My Lou)
Take some apples, put them in a pot
Stir them, stir them, stir them a lot
Add cinnamon and sugar, and what have we got
We made some apple sauce.

Applesauce Recipe
6 apples (peeled, cored and chopped )
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup sugar
sprinkle of cinnamon

Place all ingredients in covered saucepan. Bring to a quick boil.  Reduce heat and simmer for 15-20 minutes, or until apples are tender. Pour contents into a blender and blend until desired consistency (I like it with some chunks.) 

I personally do not love apple sauce that you buy at the store, but I LOVE homemade apple sauce - especially warm.

Another great apple books is:

Ten Red Apples by Pat Hutchings (a great counting book)

Please note:  I have made a great updated version of the color book and added it to my TpT store.  You can find it here:  COLOR BOOK