Keeping Them Curious: Apple Edition

If you’ve known me for a while, you know that I am passionate about getting young children excited about learning through thematic teaching. So, I’ve decided to start this new “Keeping Them Curious” series designed to give you and your kiddos a little boost as you start your week!

Each week, I will cover a theme by giving you some tidbits to share with your students and some links to relevant resources from my site and across the web.

With September 26th being Johnny Appleseed’s birthday, it seemed fitting that I should kick off the series with an apple theme! 🍏

Did You Know? Apple Facts for Your Class

I’ll start with some interesting apple facts you can inject into your lessons this week!

🍏 The only apple trees that are native to North America are crabapple trees. Other varieties of apples were brought from Central Asia many years ago. Farmers continue to discover and breed new varieties of apples today.

🍏 If you take a seed from an apple and plant it and that seed grows into a tree, the tree will take years to produce fruit. The apples that eventually grow on your tree will not be the same kind of apple that you took the seed from! Read more about how farmers grow apples here.

🍏 If you cut an apple in half across the middle (rather than through the stem end) you will see that the seeds form a star shape!

🍏 It takes from 30-40 apples to make a gallon of apple cider!

🍏 Most apples are red, yellow, or green, but one variety, the Black Diamond, has dark purplish-black skin!

Teaching about apples this week? An apple theme allows for easy integration of science, math, literacy, and even social studies. I have a blog post here with tips, videos, ideas, and a couple of freebies!

Here’s another post with a roundup of kid-appropriate apple videos to use throughout your theme!

And one more with some fun fine motor rotation ideas to use as part of your Apple Day planning!

Looking to save time? I also have some ready-to-go apple resources in my store. If you click through to this bundle on TPT (or in the website shop), you can see all four resources that are included: a thematic unit with a PowerPoint, a set of apple math printables, a set of printable readers, and some informational digital activities!

I hope these apple facts and resources are useful as you plan your apple theme!