Hooray for Michigan apples! Today we explored the life cycle of an apple, from farm to table. October is National Farm-to-School Month and we are fortunate to be able to offer educational programs such as Farm Sprouts right at the farm!
We started off with an early literacy sign-in activity which involved having the preschoolers use magnifying glasses to find their name written in tiny lettering on a worm coming out of an apple. Next they moved into setting up their “Apple Science Experiment,” which involved placing apple chunks in six different mediums to observe changes over time. These mediums included air, water, fresh-squeezed lemon juice, tonic water, oil, and vinegar. We practiced making notes and will make our final observations next week. Farm Sprouts also had some fun with our Chick Life Cycle Exploration Set.
We greeted each other in Spanish and will begin to talk about our likes in Spanish, such as “Me gusta la manzana.” (I like the apple.) We also read Apple Trees by Robin Nelson, which highlights the different stages in the life cycle of an apple, sang out “Apples, Apples,” and talked through a brief mini-lesson on contour drawing to assist us with our nature journaling.
“Apples, Apples”
Apples juicy, apples round
On the tree or on the ground
Apples yellow, apples red
Apple pie and juice and bread
Apples crunchy, apples sweet
Apples are so good to eat!
Once outside, we checked on our sunflowers. We noted that honeybees were visiting and that the birds have been harvesting the seeds! Since we’d also like to have the opportunity to harvest the seeds, we cut down the heads and carried them to the greenhouse. Next week we’ll continue the work of the birds by harvesting seeds ourselves for planting next year.
In the Children’s Garden, Farm Sprouts could choose to make apples prints with paint, pretend to be bakers at the sensory table with cooking tools, cloud dough (5-6 cups of flour and 1 cup of oil), and shakers of cinnamon, or work as engineers to design apple ramps. These “Invitations to Play” were very engaging and we quickly worked up an appetite for our Harvest Snack.
For Harvest Snack, we shared in an Apple Tasting Party! We tried six different varieties of Michigan apples, including Gala, Ginger Gold, Blondie, Wolf River, and Swayze. Last week we harvested McIntosh from our own farm. Farm Sprouts noted the color, size, taste (sweet or tart), and their preference (like it or not a favorite.) The focus was on experiencing the taste and sharing our impressions, while we encouraged some practice with documenting on a chart. We learned Blondie apples can be huge and Swayze apples are small, green, and taste a lot like a pear. Galas tended to be favored by many, probably due to their sweetness. This party was a success!
To conclude our day, we spent some time in the Animal Barn, focusing on the goats. We noted their rectangular-shaped pupils and talked about how their expanded peripheral vision helps to keep them safe.
Farm Sprouts are engaging in new experiences, collaborating as a team, and contributing to the farm community to accomplish real and important work, like milking Jenna, one of our Toggenburg goats, coming up next week!
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