We read this informational text about the life cycle of an apple. Then, students drew pictures to re-tell the life cycle.
They used this page to draw the pictures and add some words from the book.
We hung them on our "tree" bulletin board. The tree stays up all year and we change it according to the seasons. We added some apples for now to make it an apple tree. (I pointed out they are maple leaves and imagination would have to be used for this!)
We have several other books about apples for further reading.
Next, we went apple picking right here at PRS! We are fortunate to have a beautiful apple tree right by the entrance to the school, and another by the teachers' parking lot. We spent a lovely Friday afternoon picking apples, and we will make something with them soon.
We even have a telescoping apple picker here at "PRS Farm."
Every student had a turn to pick an apple.
And they were very patient at waiting for their turns!
Last year there were no apples, and this year they are plentiful and beautiful! We discussed what might cause that. While I don't know for sure, we talked about weather variations, and perhaps last year's drought played a role.
And to make a fun afternoon even better, we were fortunate to see a mother deer and her two fawns right over by the parking lot (possibly eating apples from the other apple tree). We got a few pictures, though not very close.