The Uncommon Core: It's Applesauce Time!!! Common Core Learning With Hands-on Cooking.

It's Applesauce Time!  

Great to make for your classroom feast!

Making homemade, organic applesauce with children is so easy.
And there are soooo many skills to learn too!

First, we brought in apples:

All kinds of apples!

We made a graph and determined that we had more mixed colored apples than red, green, or yellow apples.  We compared colors, wrote our color words on the chart, and compared amounts.  We counted the sets of apples too.

We washed the apples and washed our hands and the fun began!

Time to peel the apples:

We used our apple peeler which also cores the apples and slices them into thin spirals.  That makes them so much easier to cut up.  We counted the turns as each child peeled their own apple.

Today was this little one's 3rd day in my classroom.
She is new to this country too.
I can't imagine what is going through her head!  :)

Peel, peel, peel!
Turn, turn, turn!

Slice, slice, slice!
Turn, turn, turn!

It was hard work, but they were all smiles!

 

It's always easier with your tongue out!

Time to chop the apples:

Each child got a paper plate and a plastic knife.
They got to cut up their own apple slices.  

Peeling, slicing, coring, chopping!

We estimated the number of chunks of apples we cut up!
I gave the apples one more final rinse (just in case :o/ ) and placed the pieces into an electric frying pan.

Chop one, taste one!

 We subtracted as we tasted some of the apple pieces!

Chop, chop, chop!
Turn, turn, turn!

Plastic knives are awesome for this activity.

Chop, Chop, Chop!
Don't bite your tongue!

Time to cook the apples:

I added a cup of water and some cinnamon and turned up the heat to about 300 degrees.
We measured the water and cinnamon.  (You might not need a full cup of water.)

After a few minutes, I lowered the heat to 275 degrees and stirred up the apples.
We timed the cooking on our classroom clock.

It smelled sooooo goooooood!

We cooked them for about 30 minutes, but you can cook them for an hour, adding water if needed.

The final result is chunky applesauce.  If you want to get rid of the chunks, just use a potato masher or a food mill to create a puree.

We let the chunky applesauce cool down a bit before we ate it.

We counted the cups and spoons too.  So much math and science.  We used our 5 senses too!

We decided that, just like The Three Bears, this treat needed to cool down before we ate it.  That gave us a literature link!  :)

Time to eat the applesauce: 

Yum!

We used our 5 senses to enjoy this healthy treat.

The kids loved peeling, coring, slicing, cooking, and eating the applesauce.

And let's not forget phonics:  This activity was perfect for "A" week.

And there is a link to the social studies theme of change:   Now they know that applesauce comes from apples!

And, even though we cooked it in our adjoining middle room so the kids would not be near anything hot, the smell traveled into our classroom and made our classroom smell GREAT!

See you all tomorrow!

Palma :)

Check us out on:

          Facebook:  KFUNdamentals on Facebook

          Pinterest:  KFUNdamentals on Pinterest

          Teachers Pay Teachers:  KFUNdamentals on TPT