A History of Apples

Beyond being great fodder for art, math and science, apples are an iconic fruit with a rich place in the stories of our history. Education World has a fantastic unit focused around apples to help you bring this fall bounty into the classroom in a fun and meaningful way. These are a few of their lessons focused around apples in history and language.

Green Apple (pro)
Green Apple / Nick Perla / CC BY 2.0

Johnny Appleseed

John Chapman was known for the many apple orchards he helped to start throughout the U.S., helping to make this fruit the popular staple that it is. Find age-appropriate stories to read with your kids and ask them to write letters home from Johnny Appleseed’s perspective.

Apple Idioms

How many ways do we use apples in everyday sayings? Let your kids know they’re the apples of your eye as you brainstorm together as many apple sayings as you can. Think about what the sayings mean today and how they came to have that meaning.

William Tell

William Tell is famous for being forced to shoot an apple from his own son’s head, a story immortalized through an opera by Rossini. Listen to the famous overture with your children and then write a song together about Tell’s incredible marksmanship.