October is a national month for so many things! Many of these are worthy causes for us to consider, while others are just for fun. This time, we’re going to look at ways to have fun learning with apples since it’s National Apple Month. Apples are considered to be the “star of fall,” even though pumpkins seem to steal the show. But apples weren’t always a favorite.
Did you know that apples used to be gross? Apples have been growing for centuries. But they were not the sweet fruits that we enjoy until more recent history. Today, most of us have apples pretty regularly, and we love to use apples in our fall baking. And many of us would find a Thanksgiving table incomplete without some kind of apple dessert. So while we’re enjoying our fall apples, let’s find ways to have fun learning with apples too!
The Basics
We can use almost anything for counting practice, so why not count how many apples are in our bucket at the orchard? Or how many apples did we bring home from the store? If you want to get really into the math, see if you can figure out the average number of apples in a pound.
Apples are also great for teaching color and shape. We can even teach more complex concepts for shape – like spheres. (Yes, technically that’s a figure or a geometric solid, but you get the point.)
Another basic way to have fun learning with apples is to work on the letter A and its sound. You can find some help with this in the first episode of TreeSchoolers: Legends of Phonetica or in Mother Goose Schoolhouse Apple to Zebra show.
Of course, we’d love for you to learn the sign for apple.
Fun Activities with Apples
Learning usually goes beyond the basics, so let’s look at some fun activities to help us learn with apples. This is easy, because we have so many fun apple activities we love to do in the fall.
Do you have a favorite type of apple? It’s fun to do a taste test with kids to find their favorite kind of apple. Just get a few different types of apples, get a few slices from each, and see what you both like best. This can also encourage your child to eat more apples. My picky eater will eat loads of apples if they are Golden Delicious apples.
How about bobbing for apples? This traditional activity teaches our kids to be brave and to stick with it even if it’s difficult. Plus it’s silly and lots of fun.
Of course, it’s so fun to go to an orchard and to pick some of your own apples. What a great way to have fun learning with apples! There are so many things to learn about at an orchard. We can talk about trees, bugs, flowers, the sun, and how apples grow on the trees.
Once you have your apples, it’s fun to make delicious treats with them. And this is another fun way to learn. Baking and cooking are full of numbers and measuring and learning how ingredients work together.
So this October, see if you can find some ways to have fun learning with apples!