apple activities Archives - Teacher's Brain

Ideas for Teaching about Johnny Appleseed

August 19, 2022 teachersbrain Fall & Halloween, Teacher's Pay Teachers

What is Johnny Appleseed famous for?

Johnny Appleseed has become a classic story in elementary classrooms across the country. If you don’t know the Johnny Appleseed story, it goes that he went around and planted apple seeds for people across the country.

What is the lesson of the story of Johnny Appleseed?

The general moral of the story is to give generously to others. We use this story to teach students the power of generosity and kindness, which is so important in those early years of learning.

When should I teach Johnny Appleseed?

Traditionally, people teach about this story during fall or Autumn. So right when you head back to the classroom and start incorporating fall lessons, apples are all around! This makes it the perfect time to incorporate this important story.

Add some more apple fun by serving some applesauce, or doing some apple crafts.

Looking for some fun Johnny Appleseed Crafts? I have you covered!

My Hat Craft is perfect for elementary students as they read and learn about Johnny. It also includes a journal for students to write down the data that they get as they work through their lesson.

This resource is a quick and easy way to celebrate apples and the hard work of Johnny Appleseed.

What is in this download?

Pg. 1 Cover

Pg. 2 Resources

Pg. 3 Pot Printable

Pg. 4 Headband Printable

Pg. 5-8 Journal 1/2 pages (primary and intermediate lined)

Pg. 9 Credits

For even more Johnny Appleseed fun, check out my digital escape!

Digital Escapes™ are a fun way to get students to learn without even realizing it. NO printing and no prep needed for this digital escape! Super EASY for distance learning.

Students will click a video for a short story and directions to help with their first clue.

During the escape, students will be tasked with solving 4 lock clues in order to save Johnny from a hole. There is a pdf included in this download with directions, the link to the site, an answer key, and an optional note-taking worksheet for students. This activity takes about 20 to 30 minutes to complete.

Students will:

Listen to short audio directions and a YouTube video
Solve 5 Comprehension Questions
Solve a Jigsaw Puzzle
Sort apples by color
Work on problem-solving as a group or individually

What are your favorite activities for teaching about this story? Let me know in the comments!
For more fall activities, check out these free printables!

Johnny Appleseed Day Activities

September 26, 2019 teachersbrain Teacher's Pay Teachers

Lesson Plans and Apple Activities

Johnny Appleseed is famous for planting apple seeds across land while exploring and having an adventurous life. For older students, it is fascinating to have them research his life and find out WHY he really planted the seeds. They can discover that the apples were used to make HARD CIDER because they were too small and bitter.

Younger students learn about his love of animals, his real name (John Chapman) funny personality and kindness. For twenty years, I have taught primary students about Johnny Appleseed. At the end of each school year I would survey my class and most classes remember the week we learned about apples!

Apple Lessons

Introduce Johnny Appleseed by reading a book about his life. Discuss the facts from the book. Share a video about his life because most students are visual learners, including a short video is a great way to hook your students into wanting to learn more. Then, have a different activity about apples during the week that will help them not only learn about Johnny Appleseed but the science of apples. Incorporate all subjects into your lessons. Here are some activities that are easy to plan, but hits standards:

Sort apples by color or a large graphing chart.
Make home-made applesauce. (My favorite easy recipe will be at the bottom of this post.)
Dissect an apple so students can see the seeds.
Make apple crafts!
Label the parts of the apple. (skin, flesh, seeds, stem, core)
Write a letter to Johnny Appleseed.
Count the apple seeds during math.
Incorporate the 5 senses by letting students smell and taste different types of apples.
Invite parents to send in apples. (I use these all week for the activities above.)
Have students think about their favorite color or flavor or apple. They can make a graph to see what kind was the class’ most popular.
Make apple glasses for students to use while reading about apples facts or apple books.
Have an APPLE PARTY! Invite parents to send in apples snacks to share with the class so students can see how many different ways apples are used for ingredients.

Here is my favorite EASY applesauce recipe!

First, peel the apples. Next, remove the cores out of all your apples, (you need about 1 apple per kid in your class) cube the apples and place them in a crock pot on high. Do this as a whole group activity in the morning. The room will smell SO GOOD!

I like to have parent volunteers cut up the apples in front of the students or just send them in already cut up in bags. Then, cut one apple to show them the inside and let the students pour the rest of the cubes into the crock pot. Finally, add about 1/2 a cup of Cinnamon Red Hots Candies into the pot. The red hots add some sugar and cinnamon flavoring. The red color makes the applesauce different and fun for the students. Even students who said they hated apples, eat it and LOVE IT. I leave it on high, mash it up with a potato masher later. About 30 minutes before you want to serve it (at the end of the day, so it had about 3 or 4 hours of cooking) let it cool off before giving it to the kids. It’s warm, but not hot. SO YUMMY!