Lest our homeschool journey be finished without a unit study on apples, I have included a free apple lapbook.
Because there are a kazillion apple lapbooks for Pre and K, this lapbook is geared toward a slightly older child. You also have the ability to include your junior high and high school children right along with your younger ones. I have added some unit study suggestions for subjects below.
Apples are one of our favorite snacks in our house. They grow all summer and fall until they are ripe and juicy and ready for picking.
The apple tree is part of the rose family (Rosaceae). Colors in apples range from various shades of green to yellow and red. They can be tart or sweet. Washington ranks first as the state that grows the most bushels, followed by New York, Michigan, California, and other states.
The apple tree grows best in Temperate Zones. The Romans enjoyed apples and, in their numerous conquests, they spread various kinds of apples throughout England and other parts of Europe. Through a lot of experimenting, cultivators have improved the quality of apples by breeding.
The apple season starts in July or August in the Northern Hemisphere. Apples should be harvested in dry weather. They should be picked carefully so that the new shoots and leaves are not damaged. When an apple is really ripe, turning the fruit slightly will break it loose from the branch easily. Apples can stand temperatures that are a few degrees below the freezing point, depending on their level of ripeness and their sugar content.
An interesting feature of apples is that they breathe. They absorb oxygen from the air and exhale carbon dioxide, as well as water. The warmer the environment, the sooner they dehydrate and shrivel. Through breathing, they also absorb odors from their environment. Therefore, it is best to store them by themselves at a temperature of about 40 degrees Fahrenheit.
Apple trees are deciduous trees. Deciduous trees have green leaves and lose their leaves in fall and then grow them back in spring.
Conifer trees have leaves that are green needles and most, but not all, keep them all year long. An example of this tree is the pine.
Johnny Appleseed – American Pioneer
Johnny Appleseed was a real person named John Chapman.
He was born September 26, 1774, in Massachusetts. He planted apple orchards in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and Ohio.
He was an American pioneer nurseryman. He became an American legend while still alive, largely because of his kind and generous ways, his great leadership in conservation, and the symbolic importance he attributed to apples.
More facts about John Chapman:
- John’s father was a Minuteman and fought in the Revolutionary War.
- Because he loved nature, he spent a lot time in the woods reading.
- Little is known of his childhood and early life. His half-sister later recalled that, as a child, he loved nature, observed birds, plants, and flowers, and enjoyed natural scenery.
- Always humane to animals, John acquired skill in ministering to wounded or distressed beasts at an early age; he often bandaged their wounds and injuries. He derived great pleasure in caring for God’s creatures.
- Whether he carried a skunk around in his arms or doctored a sick dog with evil-tasting herb medicines, he was always the friend of small animals.
Notebooking Pages for John Chapman and the Life Cycle of an Apple
There are 4 pages in all. Two of the pages are notebooking pages and two sheets are on the apple life cycle. Two of the pages are intended for a little older child to write about John Chapman.
The apple life cycle pages are the same, except for one thing. One page has the words if you have a child that doesn’t want to write and the other one provides a place for them to write in each word for each step, then color.
John-Chapman-nb-page-1.pdf (2035 downloads)
John-Chapman-nb-page-2.pdf (1786 downloads)
Life-cycle-of-apple-with-print-and-no-print.pdf (2358 downloads)
Apples and Oranges {Paul Cézanne}Apple Tree {Gustav Klimt}Portrait of young man with apple or Portrait of Maria della Rovere – {Raphael}Virgin and Child under an Apple Tree {Lucas Cranach the Elder}Bible
Read and discuss the meaning of Proverbs 25:11. {As apples of gold in silver carvings is a word spoken at the right time for it.}
Define graciousness. How important are gracious words, both written and spoken?
Who said it was an apple?
Though the forbidden fruit in the Book of Genesis is not identified, popular Christian tradition has held that it was an apple that Eve coaxed Adam to share with her. This may have been the result of Renaissance painters. Read more here.
Read Genesis 2:9 and 2:17.
Language Arts
Free Apple Pie ABCS
I had some free vintage clip art from this old book A is for Apple Pie by Kate Greenaway. All the letters of the alphabet, except I, are in color and just precious. It is a rhyme about apple pie.
As a side note, it was interesting to read from this site, Surf Net Kids, that the original “A Apple Pie” rhyme is very old and reference is made to it as early as 1671. In those years, the letters I and J were not differentiated. The letter J, as we know it, was simply the curved initial form of the letter I used before a vowel.
So guess what? I just had to make a set of printables for your PreK sweeties using all of that precious clip art. It has been a while since I created anything for the little sweeties. I made a rhyme for the letter *Ii* too. This download is a 26 page download. One page per letter.
More language arts ideas to enrich this study.
1. Apple Acrostic. Define an acrostic: A simple definition is a poem or series of lines in which certain letters, usually the first letter in each line spell out a name, phrase, or message. Here is one of ours.
Apples
Perfectly
Pleasing
Luscious
Edibles
2. Make words with the letters “Apple Pie” for younger learners, such as pal, lie, pie, leap, etc.
3. Work on words that end with “- ap or /a/”. cap, pap, lap, map, slap, strap, trap, wrap, and nap.
4. Make a Spelling/Science/Vocabulary Words List:
Some sample words might include branch, deciduous, conifer, autumn, cultivation, harvesting, and grafting.
The topic of apples, as a whole, is science and nature-related.
Younger kids can make a graph about the different types of apples, do painting by using apple halves, use their thumbs to dip in paint and make red thumb prints for apples on a tree, use a measuring tape to measure each apple, cut an apple in halves or fourths to teach about fractions, identify and label the parts of an apple, cook a recipe with apples, or make applesauce.
For older children, study about the life of Sir Isaac Newton.
The topic of apples was certainly not a subject that was too easy for him. He pondered why apples fell down when they fell. The quiet time he had as a boy or spent in learning helped him to reflect on his thinking.
About Sir Isaac Newton and His Apple
Quick facts:
- Born: December 25, 1642 in Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire England.
- Died: March 20, 1727, Kensington, Middlesex England.
- He was known to be a genius and one of the smartest scientists who ever lived.
- He was a physicist, astronomer, mathematician, alchemist, theologian, and philosopher.
- Isaac Newton is considered the founder of modern physics and made huge contributions to science as he gave very simple explanations of forces and motion.”We would like to thank the person who made this trip possible….Sir Isaac Newton.” – A message radioed by the Apollo Crew to mission control.
The Fascinating Force of Gravity
Sir Isaac Newton explained that if a man threw an object, like an apple, from the top of a high mountain, the object would simply fall downward to the ground. But if the object was thrown forward, it would follow a curved path in falling to the ground.
A Universal Law
Newton’s equations said that all objects, small or large, exert a pull on one another, the strength of that pull being dependent on how massive the objects are and on the distance between them.
Newton’s Laws of Motion
1st Law of Motion – An object at rest will remain at rest and an object in force will remain in force, unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.
2nd Law of Motion – Acceleration is produced when a force acts on a mass.
FORCE = MASS x ACCELERATION.
3rd Law of Motion – For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
Words to Know:
inertia – {ihn-ER-shuh} – Inertia is the property of matter that tends to resist any change in motion. The word inertia comes from the Latin word iners, which means “idle” or “lazy.” This means the more mass an object has, the more difficult it is to change its motion.
force – A force is a push or pull. Unbalanced forces cause a change in motion.
friction – Friction is a force that acts in a direction opposite to the motion of the object that is moving.
gravity – Gravity is a force of attraction that exists between all objects in the universe.
Topics to investigate further for middle schoolers:
What is force? Identify different types of friction. {sliding, rolling and fluid} Compare weight and mass.{Mass is a measure of the amount of matter in an object. Mass is constant but weight can change.}
Free Sir Isaac Newton Notebooking Pages
These free notebooking pages for writing about Sir Isaac Newton can be used for any age.
Sections include spaces to write about Newton’s childhood, his education and his achievements. There are also spaces for writing about and drawing pictures of his laws of motion.
Free Apple Lapbook
Free Fall Printables
Use these easy writing prompt pages to encourage kids to write about the signs of autumn and how leaves contribute to the recycling process!
Signs of Autumn in the Northern Hemisphere
Follow My Fall Y’all Pinterest Board
Follow Tinas Dynamic Homeschool Plus’s board Fall Y’all ♥ on Pinterest.
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