Celebrating Johnny Appleseed Day was a fabulous adventure for my first grade class. We began the day by peeling some apples so we could make applesauce. A special thanks goes out to Hayden Lee's Mom for helping us get the apples peeled. We then read the story of Johnny Appleseed and the students shared their connections to the story. We have been working on making connections in reading. Ask your child to explain a text to self, text to text, and a text to world connection. Next for our nonfiction text, we read an applesauce recipe. Not only did we read the recipe, but we followed it at the same time. We also discussed the importance of following the directions in the recipe. Everyone agreed that they wanted the applesauce to taste delicious, and that it was important to make sure to add the sugar. After putting all the ingredients into the crock pot, we left the applesauce to cook. Later that morning, we tasted and described five different kinds of apples: Golden Delicious, Granny Smith, McIntosh, Gala, and Braeburn. After tasting and describing the apples, we graphed our favorite. Granny Smith and Golden Delicious tied as the student's favorite apples. Mrs. Brodeur's favorite, the Braeburn apple was considered yucky by most of the students! Oh well, more for me. During writing time, the students wrote about their Johnny Appleseed experience as they ate the YUMMY, SWEET applesauce. We all thoroughly enjoyed our special day. Thanks Johnny Chapman for planting apple trees!
