After reading Liz Eagan’s craft article, “Apples are Awesome”, I was reminded of a lesson I did with a first grade class during my student teaching long ago. It made me think about how easy it would be to adapt it for our students. My original lesson had many parts that could be spread across multiple lessons with students.
Introductory Activities
- Activate Prior Knowledge: Read a book about apples at your student’s developmental level. I loved exploring Apples for Everyone. It has real photos from National Geographic, and the text is pretty simple to understand for younger students. It also ties into the apple survey graph activity that is described below.
- Apple Tasting: Bring in a variety of different types of apples, and encourage students to explore and taste each one. The simplest version would include a red, green, and yellow apple, but you could get creative with different varieties.
- Label different parts of the apple, skin, flesh, seeds, and stem.
Apple Survey
In this part of the activity, students can practice a variety of academic skills, but they can also practice social skills and appropriate greetings and questioning. Encourage your students to make a list of 10 people they would like to ask about their favorite type of apple. Support the students as they ask their teachers and/or peers what type of apple they prefer to eat for a snack. Mark their answers down on a sheet of paper or record them on a device to play back later.
Make A Graph
- Using the Bar Graph Template, graph the results of your survey. This document can be adapted with large print, run through a PIAF, or by adding braille.
- Teach students about the parts of the graph, including title, x and y axes, data, and labels.
- Get creative in how you graph the data. Students with low vision might want to color each box or use colored stickers to place in the graph. Students without vision might want to use braille stickers, tactile stickers, or raised dots to mark the graph. You can also use cutouts of apples or apple seeds.
- When I did this activity, the entire class participated, and we made a large graph on the wall where each student used an apple cutout with their name on it to make their selection.
- Analyze the data in a developmentally appropriate way
- Which apple type was the favorite or had more votes?
- Which apple type was the least favorite or had the fewest votes?
- How many votes did each type get?
- How many more/fewer people voted for green apples than red?
Share the Results
Encourage your students to share their results with family members, peers, or another teacher. This will allow them to practice important social and public speaking skills while giving you an opportunity to informally assess their understanding of the content.
Adaptations and Extensions
- Make a larger version of the graph template to support students with complex access needs or early tactile learners.
- Take a trip to the grocery store and count how many different varieties of apples there are.
- Practice O&M skills by walking routes to survey different people.
- Make a fun apple snack or recipe.
- Sort braille cards with words on them. You can use the color words used in the graph or apple variety names.
