Hello my Omschooligans! In Michigan, autumn means one thing most of all: apples! Here at the Omschool Tree Fort, we're off to a tasty school start with an Apple Activities Unit! Teacher Omi has cross-curricular apple-themed activities, recipes, printables, lesson plans, snack crafts, craft projects, books on apples and more.
Free Printable Apple themed Lesson Plans
Recipes for Apple snack craft projects
- Cut apple in half and remove seeds and little hulls (this is great fine motor skills practice).
- Sprinkle with lemon juice to keep it from browning.
- Now create animal faces on the cut side of the apple, using the star shape as a nose!
- Make ears with pretzels, cheese slices, fruit leather cut in triangles. The image shows the bat ears and wings made from a pretzels but it can be difficult to cut like that. So just attach whole pretzel twists but cutting slits in side of apple.
- Make eyes with raisins, olive slices, hoop cereal like Froot Loops or Cheerios, or chocolate chips. You can also cut a candy necklace and use those round candy pieces.
- Make teeth from raisins, sunflower seeds or pepitas.
- Make an elephant nose or tails using neon gummy worms.
- Make whiskers and/or antennae using pretzels.
- Make fur face using shredded cheese, carrots or purple cabbage.
- Attach pieces with cream cheese or almond butter.
- (I love the little beard AI made for this craft!)
Happy Apple Hedgies 🦔🦔🦔
- Cut apple in half and place face down on cut side.
- Cut various types of cheese into cubes. Velveeta would work best as it's the softest.
- You can use fruit cubes or berries to skewer as well.
- Gently insert stick pretzels into cheese. If this is too frustrating due to breakage, use toothpicks.
- Make small holes all over the apple with toothpick or skewer.
- Insert skewered fruit and cheese into holes to create porcupine quills.
- Cut out fringy bit from bottom of apple and insert your gummy worm tail (must have tail even if it's not anatomically correct!)
- "Glue on" raisin, olive or chocolate chip eyes with dab of cream cheese.
- Add Hershey's kisses for ears and nose.
- Cut a little smiley face in apple.
No Omschool apple recipe book is complete without homemade Michigan applesauce! I included sweetener but actually don't use it in my own recipe. You can get perfectly sweet-tart applesauce just with spices like nutmeg, cloves, mace, allspice and cinnamon. Let each student take a turn milling the applesauce. Serve in paper cups or ramekin and then set out spices and let them add to their own taste.
- Blend your favorite pancake mix (mine is Aldi or Kodiak Protein pancake mix) with cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, allspice and mace.
- In separate bowl, blend vanilla, applesauce (sub for milk) and eggs according to recipe.
- Fry in melted ghee till golden brown.
- Make happy apple faces on top with Michigan Macintosh apples cut into smiles and ears.
- Use spray whipped cream for eyes and nose.
- Place raisins in eyes for pupils and in nose for nostrils.
- Arrange breakfast sausage links to look like antennae and tail.
Apple Science Experiments
1. Apple Oxidation: Preventing Browning
Question: What liquid keeps an apple slice fresh the longest?
Materials: 1 fresh apple, 4 shallow bowls or clear cups, water, lemon juice, milk, and apple juice.
Procedure:
Label four bowls: Control (Air), Water, Lemon Juice, and Milk (or Apple Juice).
Slice the apple into uniform pieces.
Place one slice in each bowl. Pour enough liquid over each slice to keep it fully submerged (leave the control slice bare in the air).
Observe and record the appearance of the apples at 15 minutes, 30 minutes, and 1 hour.
Science Concept: Apples turn brown when exposed to oxygen because of an enzymatic reaction (polyphenol oxidase). Acidic liquids like lemon juice lower the pH, slowing down or stopping this reaction.
2. Apple Sink or Float Density Test
Question: Do different parts or varieties of apples float or sink in water?
Materials: A deep bowl or bucket of water, whole apples, sliced apple quarters, apple seeds, and apple peelings.
Procedure:
Fill the container with water.
Make a hypothesis: Will a whole apple float or sink? What about the seeds or peeling?
Drop a whole apple into the water and observe.
Test individual parts (seeds, peel, core, flesh) separately.
Science Concept: Whole apples float because approximately 25% of their volume consists of trapped air pockets between their cells, making the apple less dense than water.
- Collect a variety of apples.
- Pass them around and encourage students to explore color, shape, smell.
- Have students cut into pieces with apple corer.
- Sort into colors and then graph the color differences (light to dark shades)
- Sample different types.
- Create a Tart to Sweet Scale.
Apple Craft Projects
- Apple Stampers Make this as instructed in the image below except that the apple is placed cut face down on the food dye stamp pad. This prints the star shape in the middle. Also use red delicious for this type of project.
- Use an apple mini stamper or paper punch to stamp or cut little apple shapes in different colors. (full-size apple prints are too large for this activity unless you use paper from a large classroom roll).
- Students make a pattern of apple shapes to resemble a path on a game board like Candyland
- Use the free printable Appleland cards and have students cut to make direction cards.
- Use the free printable Appleland character cards as playing pieces.
- Have students invent little "pitfalls" and "happy trails" to derail or advance them.
- Get as creative as you like or use this printable model.
- Apple Basket Bingo Reading Challenge
- Print a list of fall, harvest or apple themed books at age level.
- Use the APPLE bingo cards below or create your own with 12 squares.
- Hide apple cut-outs (or play apples if you can find them) around the room.
- When student reads a book, she finds and apple and writes her name and title on it then places apple in the Reading Harvest Basket.
Omschool Apple Book Basket Reading List 🍎🍏🍎🍏🍎🍏
Apple & Fall Harvest Children's Books
Ox-Cart Man by Donald Hall (Illustrated by Barbara Cooney)
A quiet, poetic masterpiece that follows a 19th-century New England farmer who packs up a year's worth of his family's harvest and handcrafted goods into an ox cart, travels to town to sell them, and returns home with supplies to start the cycle all over again for the coming year.
The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein
A classic, heartwarming tale about the lifelong relationship between a young boy and an affectionate apple tree that selflessly offers its leaves, apples, branches, and trunk to keep him happy throughout every stage of his life.
The Year at Maple Hill Farm by Alice and Martin Provensen
Written and illustrated by Caldecott Medal-winning creators Alice and Martin Provensen, this beloved picture book chronicles a full year on a New England farm month by month, detailing the changing seasons, nature's rhythms, and the humorous daily lives of the farm's many animals as autumn arrives and harvest turns into winter.
How Do Apples Grow? by Betsy Maestro
An accessible non-fiction picture book explaining the life cycle of an apple tree from bud to fruit.
Apple Picking Day! by Candice Ransom
An easy-to-read rhyming story following a brother and sister on a fun autumn outing to a local apple orchard.
Ten Red Apples by Pat Hutchins
A colorful, repetitive counting book featuring orchard animals taking apples from a tree until only one remains.
The Apple Pie Tree by Zoe Hall
Follows two sisters as they watch an apple tree change through the seasons, from spring blossoms to picking apples for a pie in autumn.
Bad Apple: A Tale of Friendship by Edward Hemingway
A sweet story about Mac, a friendly red apple, who stands up for his friend Will, a worm, despite teasing from other apples.
Johnny Appleseed by Steven Kellogg
A lively biography detailing the legend and adventures of John Chapman as he planted apple trees across America.
Goodbye Summer, Hello Autumn by Kenard Pak
A softly illustrated picture book capturing a child walking through town and forest, greeting the signs of the changing fall season.
Fall Harvests: Crops in the Autumn by Martha E. H. Rustad
A simple educational book introducing young readers to how farmers gather apples, pumpkins, corn, and other autumn crops.
- Books by Gail Gibbons
Apples
A clear, engaging dive into the history, science, and cultural tradition of apples. It details apple tree botany, pollination, harvesting, different apple varieties, and includes step-by-step guides for planting trees and baking apple pie.
The Seasons of Arnold's Apple Tree
A picture book that follows a boy named Arnold and his favorite apple tree as it changes across all four seasons, highlighting spring blossoms, summer shade, autumn harvest, and winter branches.
The Pumpkin Book
Explores autumn's most famous produce from seed to table. It covers planting, the growth cycle, harvest festivals, baking pumpkin pie, and carving jack-o'-lanterns. (A simplified board book version titled Pumpkins is also available for younger readers).
The Reasons for Seasons
A colorful, educational look at Earth's orbit and tilt, explaining why seasons change, with clear visual diagrams explaining the transition into autumn and winter.
Corn
Explores the history, agriculture, and harvest of corn—one of the foundational fall crops—from planting and growing to processing and eating.
Chapter Books (Ages 7-9)
Amelia Bedelia 4 Mayor by Herman Parish — A humorous look at local politics as Amelia Bedelia runs for mayor, complete with her signature misunderstandings, during a fall festival.
Ready, Freddy! #7: Apple Orchard Race by Abby Klein — Join Freddy and his friends for a class trip to an apple orchard, complete with a fun race.
Nate the Great and the Tardy Tortoise by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat — Follow kid detective Nate the Great as he solves a mystery involving a slow-moving tortoise and some missing autumn treats.
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