How Many Apple Seeds?

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Anticipatory Setting:
Younger children:
How many of you have eaten an apple before?  What have you found in your apple?  Do you eat seeds?  Read an apple book. Talk about the book. Let's guess how many seeds are in your apple."

Older children:
How many of you have eaten an apple before?  What have you found in your apple?  Read an apple book.  Talk about the book.  Now let's hypothesize, to see how many seeds are in your apple!  Who can tell me, by raising a quiet hand, what is a hypothesis?  Yes, it is a guess.

Lesson Sequence:
Have the students do the following steps (1 - 6):
1. When you go back to your desk, write down or draw how many seeds you think are in your apple.
2. The teachers / parents will cut your apple into four pieces.
3. You will use a bobby pin / popsicle stick to take your seeds out of your apple.
4. Count how many seeds there are in your apple.
5. On the piece of paper that says, "My apple had __ seeds."  Draw how many seeds you had in your apple.
6. Eat your apple after you count how many seeds are in your apple.

7. Flannel Board Story & Song: We are going to sing a song called "10 Little Apple Seeds."  Sing the song to the children and have them sing along with you after you sing it to them once. Cut out one apple (big enough to place the seeds on it) using red felt.  Cut out 10 seeds out of brown felt.  Have the children put them on the flannel board while you count or take them off.

Ten Little Apple Seeds
by Barbara Pratt
Tune of: "Ten Little Indian Boys"

One little, two little, three little apple seeds.
Four little, five little, six little apple seeds.
Seven little, eight little, nine little apple seeds.
Ten little apple seeds there are.

Ten little, nine little, eight little apple seeds.
Seven little, six little, five little apple seeds.
Four little, three little, two little apples seeds.
One little apple seed.

8. Decorate apple shaped sugar cookies. You can find a Sugar Cookie recipe at Sugar Cookies or Dairy-free Sugar Cookies. Use red food coloring; you can also use green and yellow if you would like. Have the children put raisins on top for how many seeds each child had in their apple.

9. Let the children eat their cookies as you read them a book about apples. One book that you could read is Ten Apples Up on Top! by Theo. LeSieg (Dr. Seuss).

Resources:
Apples
Paring Knives
Handout : "My apple had __ seeds."
Pencils
Apple handout for hypothesis
Popsicle Sticks or Bobby Pins
Book about Apples

You can find more activities, books, poems, songs at Apple Theme.

Worksheets:
You can find a Word Search Puzzle I created for the book Ten Apples Up On Top located at:
http://school.discovery.com/puzzles/edupratt/html/P57131AXJDDL.html