Apple Day

 I was so happy to be able to volunteer in Ian's classroom last Friday for their "Apple Day." My sweet friend Kati watched Ryan so I could really be involved in the special day! :)

It was even just a special treat to see Ian "in action" in his classroom -- interacting with his classmates, going through their morning routine, etc. (This momma would love to hear more details about school than Ian is willing to share on any given day. Ha!) All of us parent volunteers heard the whole class recite the pledge to the American & Christian flags. And we watched the kiddos finish their "apple tree cycle" pictures.

Then, Apple Day officially began. All three kindergarten classes participated and rotated between three stations. The first station was watching a Johnny Appleseed cartoon movie.

The second station included drawing, weighing, and measuring one of two apples each child had brought from home. One little boy in my group, Ben, brought a HUGE Honeycrisp apple. He was elated that he had to use all 100 teddy bear manipulatives in the balance ... and even that wasn't enough to even out the balance.

The final station included many different parts -- seeing the "star" inside the apple when it's cut open, getting a picture taken,

taking out and counting apple seeds, 

 making apple prints with paint,

 peel, coring, and cutting apples,

 and even decorating some construction paper apples.

The teachers cooked up the apples that the kids (and moms) cored, cut, and peeled and made it into applesauce. Ian said that he didn't really like it because it had "too many lumps" and "too much cinnamon."

The kids did some other fun activities in the classroom after we moms finished helping. Each child tried a yellow, green, and red apple slice and got to vote on the best color. What a fun day!

You'd think after all of the apple activities that Ian would've been all "appled-out." On the contrary, Ian insisted that he use our apple corer-peeler-slicer immediately when we got home from school. He peeled six apples almost completely on his own, which we used to make apple cake. Yum! Ryan was a willing helper (and taste-tester), too!