How to Make an Apple Pie

The last two weeks we have been rowing "How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World" by Marjorie Priceman.  It is a delightful book about a girl who wants to make a pie, but since the market is closed, she travels the world to gather the needed ingredients.  We had so much fun with this book!

SOCIAL STUDIES
We looked up each of the countries the main character visited in our atlas book and read about each country.  I got a book from the library called "Healthy Kids" that talks about what kids in different countries eat and do to stay healthy.  The kids really liked seeing the photos of toilets from around the world :).  We also played a geography memory game with the kids listing the countries and ingredients gathered in order.  If you ask them to do it, they'll roll their eyes at you, but they can do it!

LANGUAGE ARTS
I pointed out the humor in the writing and the kids had fun finding all the subtle silliness in the book.  They also took turns acting out the books, both as the girl and as the animals.  This drama activity was one of their favorites.

MATH
Baking is great math!  The bread that I bake 2-3 times per week is made with applesauce, so it was a great tie-in.  I usually knead it in my mixer, so one time I threw it on the counter and we all took turns kneading it.  It was hard work!  We also made butter to go on our bread, which is more like phys-ed, and included LOTS of whining:

I poured heavy cream into some old (clean) spice jars along with some marbles and we shook until we couldn't shake any more!  We just did this last night.  I talked to the kids about how people used to make butter with churns back in the day and how it would have been Libby and Jaina's job to churn the butter for me each week.  They were not impressed.

SCIENCE
This was a very science-heavy unit!  We read "Eat Healthy, Feel Great" by Dr. Sears, then went to the store to pick out "rainbow foods".  The more fresh colors in your diet, the better!  We also made a commitment as a family to remove all artificial colors, flavors, and sweeteners from our diets.  The kids are good at reading labels and letting me know if something has "colors, numbers, or fake sugar" in the ingredients list.  Part of staying healthy is learning about germs, and Bill Nye taught us all we needed to know in his "Germs Your Health" video.  We love Bill Nye!

I found a great book by Mark Kurlansky called "The Story of Salt".  I had read his book "Salt" about a year ago and really enjoyed it, so I was so excited to see he had written a version for kids!  The kids learned so much about the science and history of salt.  In the "Apple Pie" book, the girl gets her salt by evaporating seawater.  We had to make our own seawater with table salt, then poured it in a dish and let it sit on the counter for a few days.  I was so surprised at the results:

Our salt grew!  What started out as about 1/4 teaspoon of tiny grains of table salt turned into more than 2 tablespoons of salt crystals!  Big ones!  And each one was a perfect square!  So, so cool!

John and the kids had an "Apple tasting contest".  The kids and I had gone to the store and bought one of each variety of apple they had.  Then John made a chart and sliced up the apples and the kids told him whether each apple was sweet or tart.  Then they read the books "Apples" by Gail Gibbons.

Granny Smith was the least favorite, big surprise!  Fuji won, hands down, and John said the Honeycrisp wasn't as sweet as usual.

ART
We totally skipped art for this unit.  We were supposed to study color and contrast but just never got around to it.  I might add it in to our next unit.  The kids draw and build and create every single day, so it's not like they missed out, they just didn't have a formal lesson.

That's it for the unit.  They still had their usual math, LA/handwriting, Spanish, reading, and Scripture study every day.  They've been asking to start learning Mandarin Chinese.  I told them we can begin as soon as they finish the current Spanish book they are on.  Why not?  Up next: "Owl Moon" by Jane Yolen.  We'll be dissecting owl pellets! Gross!