A is for Apple

School has started and fall is fast approaching.  It's time to break out the alphabet and the apple activities for back to school fun!  

We started our theme with a simple letter trace.  It's great for developing letter recognition and fine motor skills, especially in early writers.  I drew a letter A on a piece of construction paper and allowed my son to choose from markers or crayons (both would have been OK too) for tracing.  Once Michael was done, he pasted on a few apples I had cut for another project.  

  For more letter recognition and word association, Michael glued apples to the letter A.  

We took our art outside for some simple, apple tree inspired easel painting.  I gave Michael red and green paint, along with a brush and a cork and set him free....

 Michael's creation

Later, his older sister joined the fun.

We also made some applesauce together.  Yum, yum!

For more apple activities check out my Apple Themed Pinterest Board!    

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*Disclaimer: These activities are a year old.  Often, I do things with my kids, take pictures, but never get around to blogging what we've done.  I'm lazy, I'll admit it.  You know, I sit around, doing nothing all day....Ok, not really.  I'm usually running my son to playdates, my daughter to art class, assisting with homework, and doing pesky chores like laundry, vacuuming, and cooking.  I figure though, since I'm pregnant and doing less with the kids at the moment, I can catch up on things we did last year so the pictures don't go to waste :)   

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Cooking with Kids: Applesauce

School is back in session and everybody is dusting off their apple themes for fall.  This year, I'm homeschooling my son so, I too, have had to brush off my teacher hat and figure out what the heck I'm going to do.  My son is not one for art, but he loves cooking, so I've made it a point to include several apple recipes in our homeschooling schedule.  Last week we started off easy and made one of my son's favorite foods...applesauce.

We used an extremely simple Applesauce recipe from Allrecipes.com.  I love this website because you can change the serving size and with a click of a button, the recipe will recalculate your measurements.  I chose 1 serving for this project.  We had several apples to choose from; Michael chose a green one.    

We began by cutting our apple.  We used the apple slicer together, then I gave Michael a safety knife (otherwise known as a pumpkin carving knife) so he could try to cut the apples into chunks on his own.  Apple peel has a lot of nutrition, so I left it on.    

 Then we placed the apples into a pot and added the sugar and cinnamon.   

 Michael loves Sid the Science Kid.  There is an episode about heat and change where Sid's preschool class makes applesauce.  Michael remembered the kids trying to mash the apples before they are cooked and wanted to try it too.  He discovered they were too hard to mash.  We talked about how heat will change the apples, making them softer, and we'd try again after the apples had cooked.  Then I added a bit of water to the apples and turned the heat on.  

 Michael was excited when the liquid started boiling.  

 Once the apples were nice and soft, Michael mashed them. 

 I learned that when you choose to hand mash apples, it is a good idea to remove the skin.  Had I thrown the apples into a blender instead, leaving the peels on would have been OK.  

 Yum, yum, time to eat!  Michael enjoys his tasty creation (except the peel).

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