Students everywhere are settling into their classroom routines and falling (pun intended) into the rhythm of the school day. As I walk through the produce aisle in the grocery store, I rub my hands in glee. It’s apple time! Apples are a time honored theme for engaging students with fun learning activities.  Here are a few ideas to start you off in your autumn resolutions.

A is for Apple is a creative writing lesson that incorporates adjectives with letter writing. Students are asked to think of words to describe an apple and write a letter to Johnny Appleseed. This activity is for grades 2-5. (Here is a free printable.)

You can find these lessons on TeachersPayTeachers:

Johnny Appleseed is an entertaining read and combines your social studies and reading comprehension lesson into one. (Hooray, one month in and still on track with the pacing guide!) This passage was created for grades 4-6 but can also be used as an extension for 2^nd or 3^rd grade readers.

The Case of the Missing Apples provides a two-page story about when Granny was a little girl and met the famous apple man who gave her some apple seeds. The unit includes five activity pages on making inferences, understanding similes, adding “ing”, using pronouns, and recording information.

For those of you with large class sizes and few helpers, here is a management tip. It’s simpler to assign a task to the class while inviting small groups to complete an activity with the teacher. (The art projects always turn out better with small group instruction.) The reading comprehension passages listed above are perfect for students to complete on their own while you are occupied with the craft. The beauty of Evan-Moor reading comprehension packets is how they follow a linear pattern that is simple for students to understand and complete.

Additional resources to partner with apples:  

Apple Art is an art project that incorporates patterns with paper apples.  Students create their own paper apples and build a repeating pattern.

Amelia Bedelia’s First Apple Pie by Herman Parish.  This book is introduces the different varieties of apples with an engaging story.  You can always pair it with a taste test and a compare and contrast writing assignment.  Be sure to have your students incorporate scholarly adjectives when describing the differences.

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Heather Foudy is a certified elementary teacher with over 7 years’ experience as an educator and volunteer in the classroom. She enjoys creating lessons that are meaningful and creative for students. She is currently working for Evan-Moor’s marketing and communications team and enjoys building learning opportunities that are both meaningful and creative for students and teachers alike.