With Autumn bringing apple harvest season to our valley and October being National Apple Month, every year this season inspires a unit study on apples in our homeschool. The last few Autumns we’ve been delving into books about apples, apple inspired science and craft projects, apple recipes and apple inspired field trips. Are you ready to join us on our homeschool apple learning adventure in this free unit study?
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Books about apples
We love our local library and borrow many books for our homeschool learning. Here are our favorite books about apples:
- Life and Times of the Apple– We first discovered this book at the library a few years ago and loved it so much we bought a copy for our personal book collection at home. This book is a little more complex so better for elementary age kids. It explains in terms kids will understand the formation of an apple from blossom to fruit, pollination, cross-fertilization, how apples are harvested and used, varieties and a timeline of apple history. My favorite part about this book is the section explaining the basics of grafting with pictures to illustrate each step. Fruit tree grafting is a skill I’ve been working on so I loved this simple step by step explanation!
- How Do Apples Grow?– We love books in the “Let’s Read and Find out Science” set and Big Sister loved this one since it is a Stage 2 that she could read herself. This book explains in detail, yet understandable enough for young kids, how an apple is formed starting with a flower bud.
- Apples– This is a great book for the young elementary age kids explaining how an apple is formed from flower being pollinated to the final fruit being picked. We found the section on the history of apples quite fascinating and loved the “Apple Facts and Records” at the end of the book with unusual apple facts.
- Apple Cider Making Days– This is a lovely story book explaining how one family owned orchard harvests apples, explains in detail how apples are turned into cider in a large processing plant that the family then sells at their farm. There is a list of interesting “Cider Lore” apple facts at the end where we learned some fascinating facts about apple cider.
- Ten Apples Up On Top! – This Dr. Seuss book is a fun apple themed beginner reader book that Big Sister has loved reading the last few years.
- Amelia Bedelia’s First Apple Pie-This book is filled with the typical Amelia Bedelia humor, only this time it is related to her first experience of baking an apple pie with the help of “Granny Smith”. Big Sister especially loves the kid friendly Apple Pie recipe at the end of the book!
- The Giving Tree– This classic book always has a place in our apple themed unit study since the lovely Giving Tree is an apple tree!
Apple Inspired Craft and Science Projects
Science projects and crafting with apples can be so fun! Here are some projects we made over the last few years:
- Studying the “apple star”: Kids are always amazed at the star within when we cut an apple in half horizontally. We study the seed chambers inside, look at the seeds under our pocket microscope, and then read the lovely Waldorf story about how apples got a star inside.
- Apple stamps: We sliced an apple in half horizontally to reveal the star shaped interior. Then we use the apple halves as stamps to dip in paint and stamp on paper. This paper makes a lovely homemade wrapping paper!
- Making Homemade Apple Cider Vinegar: This is a fun science project that can easily be done at home with apple scraps. Our kids love to watch and learn about the natural process of fermentation with this science project!
Whether we pick apples at a friend’s house, buy them at the farmer’s market or local orchard, we love to honor this Autumn fruit in delicious homemade recipes.
Apples from Harvest to Table is a lovely book filled with all things apple: recipes for breakfast, salads, sides, main dishes, desserts, condiments and even a few craft projects mixed in. While this is not necessarily a book written for kids, we found it at the library and Big Sister loved perusing the cookbook to pick out apple recipes we could cook as part of our apple unit study.
Apple inspired field trips
A lot of communities host apple inspired festivals and events in the Autumn. Locally we love to attend two apple festivals filled with art vendors, farmer’s market, cider tasting, apple pie fundraiser sales and live music.
A field trip to a local orchard is a fun apple related homeschool activity. You can organize a group field trip or go just with your family to the orchard’s farm stand. We love to talk to the apple farmers, see the fields of apple trees, learn about how apples are picked and processed and how cider is made. The kids always think the best part is getting to help crank the apple press and taste the fresh pressed cider!