Unit One A fall unit study
Apples
In this unit we cut an apple the wrong way on purpose, find the star that has been hiding in the middle of every apple the child has ever eaten, and end up with a pot of applesauce on the stove.
Every page, nothing held back
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1 The cover
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2 The books
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3 The poems
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4 The science lesson
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5 The activity and the craft
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6 Three apples, tasted
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7 The copywork page
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8 Apple math, one
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9 Apple math, two
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10 A devotion, five days
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11 The recipe
Page two
The four books
Read aloud, more than once, in no particular order. Each one is annotated — why it is here and what to watch for. If one of the four is out at the library, four is not the point.
- How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World — Marjorie Priceman
- Apples — Gail Gibbons
- The Apple Pie Tree — Zoe Hall
- Ten Apples Up On Top — Dr. Seuss
The books are not included and they are not for sale here. They are library books, which is the point.
Page four
The science lesson
Four parts worth naming, five seed chambers in a ring, and the fact that a quarter of an apple is air — which is what makes it crisp.
It opens with what the parent needs to know, written for someone who has not thought about it since school. Then a demonstration to do at the table, and one question afterward.
“Where do you think the star was, before we cut it?”
Ask it once. Then be quiet and let the answer come, however long it takes.
And then the rest of it.
- The poems
- Traditional English orchard rhyme, said aloud once a day until it is theirs by Friday. Then “After Apple-Picking” — Robert Frost, read once on the last day and deliberately not explained.
- The activity
- Three varieties, sliced and unlabelled. Sweetest, tartest, crunchiest, and everyone in the house votes.
- The craft
- Apple printing — halve one through the middle so the star shows, and stamp a border the length of a long strip of paper.
- Math
- Counting, number bonds to ten, tally marks, which pile has more, and word problems to read aloud — all of it about apples.
- The copywork page
- “An apple has a star inside.” on three-line ruling — two lines traced, the rest left blank.
- A devotion, five days
- 5 days, two minutes each at the table — a verse, a sentence, and one line to pray together. King James Version. Genesis 1:11 · Psalm 1:3 · Proverbs 25:11 · Galatians 5:22 · James 1:17.
- Stovetop applesauce
- Six apples, a strip of lemon peel, a cinnamon stick, thirty minutes. The child’s job and the adult’s job are written out separately, so nobody has to guess who holds the knife.
- What you will need
- Four books from the library, a few apples, and a printer.
Take the apples unit.
$5.95, once, for the whole unit as a print-ready PDF. No account and no login — it arrives by email, and it is yours to print as often as you like for the children in your own house.
On its way.
Check your inbox for the copywork page — and the spam folder, if it isn’t there in a few minutes. I’ll write again when the next unit is done.