Agricultural Literacy Curriculum Matrix
Lesson Plans (9)
A is for Apples
Students use their five senses to investigate apples, identify and model the parts of an apple, make applesauce, and discover how apples are grown. Grades K-2
An Apple a Day Keeps the Doctor Away
Students explore organic and conventional farming practices by analyzing multimedia texts to investigate the differences between conventionally and organically grown apples. Grades 3-5
Apple Genetics: A Tasty Phenomena
Using the context of apples, students will apply their knowledge of heredity and genetics to distinguish between sexual and asexual reproduction as they explain how new varieties of apples are developed and then propagated to meet consumer demand for a tasty, uniform, consistent product. Grades 6-8
Apple Science: Comparing Apples and Onions
Students explore heredity concepts by comparing observable traits of apples and onions, collecting data on the traits of different apple varieties, and investigating apple production. Additional activities include hands-on methods for testing apple ripeness. Grades 3-5
Apples and the Science of Genetic Selection
Students will distinguish between natural and artificial selection and use a student-centered learning activity to see how science and genetics have been used to artificially select apples for specific traits like color, texture, taste, and crispness. Grades 9-12
FoodMASTER Middle: Fruits
Students will learn the concept of enzymatic browning and methods for decreasing enzymatic oxidation by observing three types of fruit. Students will also understand the relationship between oxidation and antioxidants and the role fruits play in health and nutrition. Grades 6-8
Freshest Fruits
Students determine where fruits grow and their nutritional value by completing an activity to observe the size, shape, texture, and seeds of various fruits. Grades K-2
Tree-mendous Fruits
Students investigate a variety of tree fruits, discover how and where they are grown, and explore their nutritional benefits. Grades 3-5
Where Does It Come From?
Students explore the connection between geography, climate, and the type of agriculture in an area by reading background information and census data about the agricultural commodities beef, potatoes, apples, wheat, corn, and milk. Grades 3-5
Companion Resources (35)
Activity
Building with Apples
This STEM-based activity incorporates math (exploring dimensional spaces and problem solving) and art, as the students are encouraged to apply their creativity to come up with a unique design in form using apples and toothpicks.
Farm Pop-Ups
Students use this template to create a pop-up game to reinforce agricultural concepts concerning various plants and animals. Templates are available for apples, cows, dairy, pigs, sheep, and turkeys. Teachers can use the blank template to create their own pop-ups to reinforce concepts and understanding for any area of study.
Harvesting for a Healthy Community Farm to School Resources
Tailored to inspire curiosity, engage young minds, and foster a genuine connection to where our food come from, these farm to school resources bridge the gap between the classroom and the farm. Resources include posters, lessons, mini books, and videos investigating tomatoes, grapes, apples, citrus, carrots, herbs, leafy greens, asparagus, berries, and corn.
Making a New Apple Cultivar
Pair this activity with lessons on selective breeding. Students will identify desirable genetic traits in apples and use a coin flip to simulate the steps and time involved to breed a new cultivar of apple.
The Making of a New Apple Cultivar
This high school activity introduces students to apple growing and shows them how selective breeding is used to benefit both the apple grower and consumer by producing a new and better-quality apple.
The Very Hungry Western Caterpillar
Based off of Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar, this caterpillar takes a journey through the Western United States as he eats some of the most popular agriculture commodities in each state. This book can be made individually by students or used as a classroom copy.
Book
An Apple Tree Through the Year
While tracing the development of an apple tree from bud to fruit, Schnieper highlights the progress of an apple tree through the four seasons. The book provides an overview of life in an orchard. Beautiful full-color photos and black-and-white line drawings highlight and elucidate the text. An excellent explanation of grafting is also included.
Apple Pie Picnic
Rosa and her family live in a house in the country where an apple tree grows. With short stanzas, interspersed with occasional vocabulary in Spanish, we journey through the year and witness the tree as it changes and develops fruit. We discover what makes the tree grow strong and how the flowers are pollinated. Eventually the apples are fully grown and ready to be picked. On a warm late summer afternoon we join Rosa and her family for a celebratory picnic where a specially-made apple pie takes center stage.
Apples
This book teaches all about apples. Students will learn how and when apples were brought to America, about Johnny Appleseed (John Chapman), where apples grow, names of basic varieties of apples, the parts of an apple, about pollination of apple blossoms, the lifecycle of the apple tree, and the many culinary uses for apples.
Apples
Today, the average American consumes about sixty-five fresh apples each year. Where do so many apples come from? How do they grow? This book takes young readers on a field trip to the apple orchard to find out how apple growers produce the many different varieties of America's favorite fruit. Recipes, trivia, and fun facts included.
Apples for Cider
Apples for Cider is a delightful picture book that takes young readers on a charming adventure through an apple orchard. The story follows a little girl and her grandmother as they set out to pick apples for making cider. As they wander through the orchard, filling their baskets with ripe, juicy apples, they become separated and encounter other whimsical characters along the way. Will they find each other again and gather enough apples for their cider-making plans? A Parent/Teacher Guide is available to accompany the book.
Apples for Everyone
This picture book comes from National Geographic's Picture the Seasons series. Beautiful photographs illustrate apple trees in bloom, bees visiting apple flowers, a variety of apples, and apple trees heavy with fruit in the fall.
Apples to Oregon
A pioneer father transports his beloved fruit trees and his family to Oregon in the mid-nineteenth century. Based loosely on the life of Henderson Luelling. The slightly true narrative of how a brave pioneer father brought apples, pears, plums, grapes, and cherries (and children) across the plains.
Applesauce Day
Maria and her family visit an apple orchard and pick apples in preparation to turn the apples into applesauce! Every year they use the special pot that has been in the family for generations to make applesauce. First they wash the apples. Then Grandma cuts them into quarters. Follow each step in the process as everyone helps to make delicious applesauce!
Bring Me Some Apples and I'll Make You a Pie
From the whippoorwill's call on the first day of spring through the first snowfall, Edna and members of her family gather fruits, berries, and vegetables from the fields, garden and orchard on their Virginia farm and turn them into wonderful meals. Includes facts about the life of Edna Lewis, a descendant of slaves who grew up to be a famous chef.
First Apple
In this autobiographical novel set in the 1940s, the author tells of her childhood in China and her dream to buy a special gift for her grandmother's birthday--an apple, a fruit that is precious and rare in her part of mainland China. The child's voice and the intensity of her desire to do something for her grandmother, who has raised her from early childhood, are very real. This first novel by a Chinese immigrant is poignant, memorable, and presented in a format that is accessible to readers at the chapter book level and beyond.
From Apple Trees to Cider, Please!
Grab the wagon, it's a bright autumn day and the trees are full of ripe, red apples! There's an apple festival underway at the farm and lots of work to do making cider. The visit finishes with a cider doughnut and a cup of freshly pressed cider. DELICIOUS! Told in crisp, action-driven rhymes from a young child's point of view, From Apple Trees to Cider, Please! is a realistic account of how apple cider is pressed, flavored with the charm and vigor of a harvest celebration.
From Apples to Applesauce
This book describes apple production, following the process from farm to the table. Fun facts about apples and their production, processing, packaging, and distribution are provided throughout.
How Do Apples Grow?
This book is a part of the Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science series, and it clearly illustrates how fruit comes from flowers. Colorful illustrations show the male and female parts of the apple flowers up close, and the role that bees play in pollinating apple flowers is explained in simple language. The book follows apple trees through all four seasons, from the closed buds of winter to the ripe apples of fall.
How to Grow an Apple Pie
It's easy to make an apple pie, but what does it take to make the apples? Sophie is about to find out! First, the apple trees need to be about six years old—just like Sophie. Next, they need to be pruned, and the bees have to pollinate their blossoms! After that, the tiny apples grow through the summer until they're ready to pick in the fall. Finally, it's time for Sophie to make the perfect pie!
Johnny Appleseed
John Chapman—better known as Johnny Appleseed—had wilderness adventures that became larger-than-life legends. Pioneering west from Massachusetts after the American Revolution, John cleared land and planted orchards for the settlers who followed, leaving apple trees and tall tales in his wake. In this glorious picture book retelling, Steven Kellogg brings one of America's favorite heroes—and the stories that surrounded him—to life.
My Family's Farm Book Series
Learn through the eyes of young farmers how animals are cared for, crops are raised, and renewable resources are used as they take you for a tour of their family's farm. This digital book series includes titles for beef, corn, soybeans, wind (energy), pigs, and apples.
No Ordinary Apple: A Story About Eating Mindfully
On an otherwise ordinary day, Elliot discovers something extraordinary: the power of mindfulness. When he asks his neighbor Carmen for a snack, he's at first disappointed when she hands him an apple — he wanted candy! But when encouraged to carefully and attentively look, feel, smell, taste, and even listen to the apple, Elliot discovers that this apple is not ordinary at all.
Our Apple Tree
A whimsical and very useful look at the life cycle of the apple tree. With the help of two helpful tree sprites as guides, readers travel from spring, when the apple tree blossoms, through summer, when the fruit grows, to fall and the harvest. Along the way, you'll learn about the life of the tree and the animals that visit—from insects that pollinate the flowers to deer that eat the fallen fruit.
Seed by Seed: The Legend and Legacy of John "Appleseed" Chapman
With one small seed every day, what good will you plant in the world? Johnny Appleseed—an American folk hero—changed our nation seed by seed, deed by deed. This book challenges readers to follow the five footsteps John Chapman left behind: use what you have; share what you have; respect nature; try to make peace when there is war; you can reach your destination by taking small steps.