Experimenting with Apples

It's science fair time again and we have been working on our project.  We used the scientific method to guide our experiment.

We began by talking about our problem.

Then we formulated a question.

And a hypothesis.

Next, we each made a prediction.

Then we conducted our experiment.

I prepped by dividing paper plates into 4 parts and adding the names of the liquids.

Then we dipped the apple slices into either soda, milk, lemon juice, or water and placed them on the plates.

Then came the hard part for my Kinders ... waiting!

We waited an hour and then observed the apple slices.

The differences between all of the slices was very subtle, but we did find that dipping an apple slice in lemon juice slowed down the browning process.

We recorded our results on this sheet.

Here is our display board, all ready for the Science Fair!

Apple Week

One of my favorite weeks during the school year is my apple week unit.

1. Because peanut butter and apple slices are one of my favorite snacks.
2. I love anything APPLE scented. If you send me apple candles or bake me an apple pie, I just might be your BFF. :-)

Quickly, here are a few of my favorite activities.

First, I gotta to have my famous apple tree bulletin board.

We count how many apples tall we are and graph the results. 

We conducted the "Germy Apple" experiment and draw the daily observations. This was a neat freebie I found on TpT. 

Here is an apple week freebie for you!

Want to hear more about my classroom shenanigans and apple goodness? Visit me at www.bonniekathryn.blogspot.com 

Apple Tasting

Hey everyone! I'm so excited to share with you that I now have my own blog called Tickled Pink in Primary! I took the plunge into the blogging world and am loving getting to share my ideas with you. I'd love for you to check it out and follow my page! 

 

Can you believe it's September already? September is always a fun month in Kindergarten because we get to learn all about apples! I know many teachers are moving away from themes. However, I think you can still do your old themed activities AND incorporate your common core standards. Having a theme can also tie in all of your academics throughout the day. This post will just be a small portion of what we do when we learn about apples. 

We were working on sorting during math, which naturally leads to learning how to  graph what you sorted. I brought in red, yellow, and green apples. First we sorted the apples by color, then by size. We also discussed how they were similar and different. Students predicted what each apple would taste like. Then, I cut up the apples and let students have a few minutes to taste them all. 

They were SO happy to get a snack and compare with their friends how they tasted and which one was their favorite! We are also working on descriptive words in class. I asked them to give me some ways to describe what the apple tastes like, and they couldn't say "good".  Here are some of the words I got: yummy, slimy, awesome, tasty, mushy, crunchy, delicious...

After the apple tasting, I handed out this graphing worksheet. We went around the room and asked each kid what kind of apple they liked the best. I always have to remind them to say how they really feel and not just what their friend picked. :) After each student answered, we colored in our graph to match their answer. As you can see we had to make an extra box since 11 kids liked the yellow apples. 

After graphing our results, we then answered a few questions about the graph. I noticed many students looking at my color posters to see how to spell the colors words. Very resourceful!! As you can see while doing this simple apple tasting activity, we were able to fit in many math and writing skills. 

The worksheets above are included in my Apple Literacy & Math Activities bundle which includes 12 activities that work on reading, writing, math, and science. It's a great way to incorporate common core while still having fun! 

Do you still use themes in your classroom or just units of study?