How to Make an Apple Pie

Our next Five in a Row book was How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World.  This is a funny story about a girl traveling the world to fetch the ingredients needed for her apple pie. 
The timing of doing this book coincided with a local homeschooling field trip to an apple orchard.  The kids had a great time picking apples.

We also made apple cider.  Here are the kids sorting apples. 

I didn't get any other pictures of the cider process because I was too busy helping prep apples, etc.  We really enjoyed the cider we brought home and used our fresh picked apples for an apple pie.

After our orchard visit we did a mini apple study:  K tested whether apples float or sink, predicted what the inside would look like and how many seeds there would be.  She also put an apple on a balance scale and found how many unifix cubes it took to weigh the same as the apple.  Apple prints were fun, too.  K thought of apple comparisons (something red and round like an apple, something heavier, lighter, softer, same size, etc.), apple descriptions using the 5 senses and we had an apple taste test.  K enjoyed keeping track of which kinds everyone in the family liked best.  Each of us had a different favorite.

As far as what activities we did relating to the book How to Make an Apple Pie, we basically followed the activities as described in the manual.  Favorites were finding the mentioned countries on a globe and marking the girl's journey with yarn.  We did a science experiment to learn about evaporation by dissolving 1/4 cup salt in a pan of 2 cups of water, then leaving the pan until the water all evaporated.  This took a couple weeks for all the water to evaporate.  But when it did, lo and behold, the salt remained.  I curious if there was still 1/4 cup salt.  It actually measured more than 1/4 cup.  We decided this must because the evaporated water salt crystals were much bigger than the ones we'd started with.  B also suggested that maybe some impurities in the water were also left behind. 

We did a very brief introduction to the countries listed in the book.  We spent the most time with Italy and Sri Lanka.  We watched a YouTube video of a combination Italian cooking/language lesson which K enjoyed because of her interest in all things relating to food prep.  We also spent some time looking at the gorgeous photos my sister took during her stay in Sri Lanka.  The kids especially liked the colorful boats the fishermen use and pictures of elephants.  She even had a picture of a leopard ambling through the forest, just like in the book.

Some of our Jesus Time activities during the How to Make an Apple Pie unit included spending three days learning about the Fruit of the Spirit.  The Music Machine CD was perfect for this.  It has a song for each fruit. The songs are fun to listen to and describe Love, Joy, Peace, etc., in a child-friendly way.  The first day K listened to the first five songs while coloring a Fruit of the Spirit coloring page.  The next day she listened to the remaining Fruit songs and drew a picture of what the songs made her think of.  She made a nice picture illustrating kindness.  Then the third day she chose one song from the CD and we listened to just it, following the words and discussing it afterward.  She chose the Self-Control song.  T wanted to choose one, too, and he picked Joy.  By the end of the unit both kids had Galatians 5:22 memorized and could sing the Fruit of the Spirit song.

We also discussed the harvest and John 4:35-38.  We watched a YouTube video of a wheat field ready for  harvest and learned the song "Bringing in the Sheaves".  I was not familiar with this hymn, but this video on YouTube was good for learning the song and we also enjoyed this one of Sacred Harp singers.  For some reason there was a Salvation Army band accompanying them for most of the song.  Regretfully, the accompaniment seems to make the song rather ponderous in my opinion; the singers sounded much more joyful when they sang a verse accapella.  But T, especially, really enjoyed watching the double conductors and tried to wave his own arms in sync with their motions.  He still often sings his own version of the song at the top of his lungs.  Gotta sing loud like those shape note singers.