I have always loved taking my kids to the apple orchard and picking our own apples. To find the best apples, we need to drive for nearly two hours, to the mountains, but it is totally worth it. This year, we started our field trip with a talk with the farmer. He taught the kids about the part the bees play in making our apples. He also taught them about the different seasons of apples and tells us what kinds of apples will be ripe at the time of our visit. The kids loved listening to his stories and answering his questions.
Finally we were ready to hop on a wagon for a trip into the orchard. My kids always try to cram as many apples as they can into their little draw string bags. Our trip is never complete without fresh, hot apple cider doughnuts and ice cold cider slushies. This year we even came prepared with a large cooler so we could take gallons of cider home with us.
When we returned from the orchard this year, my son kept asking to go back and pick more apples. His favorite part was choosing the ripest apples from the tree. While I wasn't ready to drive all the way up the mountain again, I was willing to give him his own personal apple tree in our dinning room. Since he is working on his short vowel words, I made this cute game for him to sort his "apples" by their vowel sounds.
He tells me the name of the picture on the apple he wants to pick. Then he is allowed to pick that apple from the tree. He places the apple in the correct basket based on the middle vowel sound. If you are interested in this game, I have it for sale in my TpT store. The packet includes 30 full color apples with pictures, 5 full color baskets (one for each vowel), and 5 B&W follow up worksheets. You will need to make the tree yourself. But as you can see in the photo above, I made a very simple one with a few pieces of construction paper. I added Velcro dots to the tree and apples so he can play the game multiple times for several weeks.
This is a great way to remember our special field trip until next fall.
Laura
