Elementary School Resource

Homemade Apple Pies

In this activity, students will:

• Learn about the life of an apple, from seed to tree to consumer.
• Make apple pies.
• Learn about jobs at the apple orchard and bakery.

Activity:
Pie-making is a school-based activity that culminates in a unit on apples. Students gain an awareness of careers in the apple orchard and bakery business. Books and poems about apples, visits to an orchard and bakery, and integrated learning activities engage the students throughout the unit.

• Students listen to/read books and poems about apples (e.g., Apple Picking Time by Michele Benoit Slawson, The Seasons of Arnold’s Apple Tree by Gail Gibbons).
• Students make apple art (e.g., apple prints, paintings of dried apple slices that are later shellacked by the teacher, apple books).
• The teacher talks to students about the life cycle of an apple (seed, tree, apple, consumer), and the students draw pictures of the life cycle.
• Class visits an apple orchard and watches the process of picking, sorting, washing, storing, and preparing the apples for market. Students are taught the correct way to pick apples, and they pick apples with assistance. Throughout the experience, jobs are highlighted and demonstrated.
• Students visit a local bakery and watch the pie-making process—measuring, crust making, apple preparation, and baking. Jobs at the bakery are highlighted and demonstrated.
• A bakery representative, local chef, or cafeteria staff visits the class to facilitate apple pie making with the students in the school’s cafeteria.
• Students hold an “apple pie tea” at which they will share their pies with their families.
• Developing sequencing charts, language charts, thank-you notes, and a class big book intertwine English Language Arts skills with the learning experiences.

Related NY State Academic Standards: HPF, HPF.HE.E.1, HPF.HE.E.1.1, and more!

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