Apples are one food my kids can always agree on eating. I decided to put an educational spin on snack time and talk about fractions with my kids. Keep in mind that my oldest just started kindergarten and my youngest is in preschool. This is a topic they both were eager to learn about because I told them that we’d be making a tasty treat with the apples once we were done using them to learn.
Apple Fractions
This lesson was easy, easy, easy!!!!
- First, I showed my kids a whole apple.
- After that, I cut the apple in half and talked about that two halves make one whole. They thought it was neat to put both of the halves back together.
- Next up was fourths. I cut another apple in half and then cut the halves in half again. Here they discovered that two of the fourths were the same size as one half.
- I used an apple cutter to slice the apple into eight pieces. My kids realized that the pieces of these apples were smaller. I explained that the more pieces the apple are cut into that the smaller the pieces become.
Appleseed Math
Using the center of the apple leftover from the pieces cut into eighths, I had my children predict how many seeds were in an apple. My daughter thought one seed (which seems appropriate because many fruits have one seed), and my son predicted five. I broke open the apple and we counted the seeds. We discovered that the apple we used had six seeds.
Apple Counting
So simple…. I had my kids count how many apples were in the bowl. I then posed basic subtraction problems like, “If I took two apples away, how many would be left?” I had them take away the apples and count how many remained.
Apple Tasty Treat
We certainly didn’t want to waste the apples, so we needed to eat them. My kids were so pumped when I told them they were going to be spreading peanut butter on the apples and placing mini chocolate chips on top. Of course (before I could finish my sentence) they wanted to know if they would be allowed to eat some of the chocolate chips.
I gave each child a bowl of peanut butter, another bowl with mini chocolate chips, a butter knife and some apple slices. After they spread the peanut butter on the apple, I gave them a number to count out and then place that amount of chocolate chips on top of an apple slice. This not only helped reinforce counting skills, but they used fine motor skills to pick up the tiny pieces of chocolate.
(My kids also suggested using Nutella with white chocolate chips or caramel sauce. It looks like we will be trying that soon!)
This lesson was a hit with my kiddos. I loved that it was inexpensive, quick (I had all of the ingredients and materials in my fridge or pantry), educational, and filled their bellies with a nutritious snack.
The end of summer and early fall is the perfect time to head to an apple orchard to go apple picking. Check out this list of local apple orchards.
