How Do Apples Grow? Elementary Lesson Plan

An Integrated Science, Literature, and Art Sequencing Activity

Sep 5, 2008
Renee Carver

Growing Apple Changing from Green to Red - Torli Roberts

Teach children how apples grow by breaking the process down into a sequence of steps through a lesson that integrates science, literature, and art content.

An important part of understanding how anything grows is being able to break this process down into steps. Help children explore through literature the science of how apples grow and then demonstrate through an art project their understanding of this process.

Objectives

Students will practice taking notes from a book.
Students will practice organizing events in sequence.
Students will demonstrate an understanding of how apples grow by creating an illustrated sequence chart that depicts the life cycle of an apple tree over the course of four seasons.

Build Background

Discuss how apple trees grow from seeds. If possible, display the sequence chart on page 17 of Apples, Apples, Apples by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace [Winslow Press, 2000] that shows 1.) an apple seed, 2.) a bud and a root growing from the seed, and 3.) the fully formed bud and root.
Explain that after an apple seed buds, it grows into a seedling, and then a tree. If possible, display pages 4-6 of Apples by Gail Gibbons [Holiday House, 2000] to show people planting seedlings.

Share the Literature: The Apple Pie Tree

Have children divide a blank sheet of paper into four squares, title it The Apple Pie Tree, and label the squares winter, spring, summer, and fall. Tell them they will take notes, or write down important pieces of information, in each of these squares. For younger children, have them dictate to you what to write down on a class chart.
Display the cover of The Apple Pie Tree by Zoe Hall [The Blue Sky Press, 1996] and discuss the pictures and title. Ask children what might make a tree an "apple pie tree."
Flip through the book to preview some of the pictures. Have children predict what they think the story will be about. Then, read the story and check predictions.
Reread the book as needed for children to take complete notes about what happens to the tree in each of the four seasons.

Science Lesson: The Life Cycle of an Apple Tree over One Year

Invite children to share their notes and discuss what changes an apple tree goes through in each season, focusing specifically on how apples grow from buds.
Provide children with copies of books such as I Am an Apple by Jean Marzollo [Scholastic, 1997], How Do Apples Grow? by Betsy Maestro [HarperCollinsPublishers, 1992], and Apples, Apples, Apples to use as further references for how apples grow.
Have children use their notes and these references to write in order the sequence of events through which an apple tree goes from winter to fall to grow apples.

Assessment: Integrated Art and Science Activity: Make an Illustrated Sequence Chart

Have children examine and discuss the art materials used in each of the books they have read to create the illustrated sequence of events charts showing how apples grow.
Have children pick an art medium and use this material to create their own illustrated sequence of events charts of the life cycle of an apple tree over one year. (Older children might create a second chart focusing on a more in-depth subject such as how a single bud develops into an apple.)

For Further Reading About Apple Trees

Children can read The Seasons of Arnold's Apple Tree by Gail Gibbons [Dutton's Children's Books, 2001] for information about activities that can be done with an apple tree in all four seasons.
Older children can read Apples by Jacqueline Farmer [Charlesbridge, 2007], the Step Back Science book Bite into an Apple by Lynn Brunelle [Blackbirch Press, 2004], and The Life and Times of the Apple by Charles Micucci [Orchard Books, 1992] for more in-depth information about the history of apples and how they are grown.

For enrichment activities, you can use the recipe from The Apple Pie Tree to make an apple pie or try lessons about visiting an apple orchard or how people make a living growing apples.