On Friday my class made homemade applesauce in class. It is truly one of my favorite activities that I do every year. I love it because we get to practice a variety of skills in such a fun and engaging activity. The students love to help cook the applesauce and we can work on writing, reading, and math skills in the process.
My students walked in to see the anchor chart and immediately were smitten. We started the morning going around sharing what ingredients we thought we were going to need and how we thought we would make applesauce.
We also had a brief mini lesson on different types of text. I brought out a cookbook and asked them if they knew what it was. {An Instruction Manual?} Close!
We discussed how chefs need to follow a recipe when they cook something.
{Insert funny story of this one time when someone’s mom had a DISASTER in the kitchen.}
Exactly! That’s why we need to make sure that we read the ingredients and measure them carefully just like scientists have to do when they are doing a science experiment.
(For this activity I always ask for parent volunteers to supply us with the ingredients.)
I asked my students if anyone had something for our project and my proud students went to their backpacks and produced the supplies.
Ingredients:
10 large cooking apples: peeled, sliced and diced
(I have a *reliable* parent peel, slice, and dice 10 apples and bring in the pieces in a tupperware container. I tell them to squeeze some lemon juice over the apples to keep them fresh. In the email that I send that parent, I include a picture of what the apple pieces should look like. They are always appreciative of it!)
(I have a *reliable* parent peel, slice, and dice 10 apples and bring in the pieces in a tupperware container. I tell them to squeeze some lemon juice over the apples to keep them fresh. In the email that I send that parent, I include a picture of what the apple pieces should look like. They are always appreciative of it!)
1/2 c. of water
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2c.-1 cup of white sugar
{I usually start mine around 8:30 and let it cook on high until 2:30}
As a class we then read the recipe and measured out and added the ingredients to my crockpot.
The students love to help!
Once everything is added (it takes about 5 minutes) we let the crockpot do the rest.
Throughout the day I let my students stir the ingredients and we used adjectives to describe the way the room smelled, the way the applesauce looked, and we talked about what was happening in the crockpot.
We also wrote a sequence of events of our applesauce. I let my kids lead the entire conversation and then they wrote it.
This page is from my “Johnny Appleseed Pack.” It also includes a ton of fun apple and Johnny Appleseed activities.
Then, around 2:30 we got to enjoy the fruits of our labor.
{I dish out the applesauce about 10 minutes before we eat it to let it cool off a bit.}
Verdict was: WE LOVED IT.
For this weekend only you can get all my apple products ON SALE! Don’t forget, Johnny Appleseed’s birthday is September 26! We are going all out with a Johnny Appleseed Day!! (All the activities and a book for this day are also included in the pack!!)
Click on the TPT button below to go directly to my Johnny Pack!
Sneak Peek:
{A Johnny Appleseed Reader}
You can make apple sauce without all the sugar, too. It’s still really yummy and the kids are better for it!
Hi Kristen!
Love, love, love this blog post! Question: How many students does this recipe serve? I have 25 and want to make sure each student will get some. Next week is Color Week and this would be a blast to do for red day! (Or green day or yellow day
Thank you for sharing!
Camile
This recipe fed 13 people. As you can see, I used tall cups (because that is what I had at my house) and each child got about 1/4- 1/2 of that cup. If you bring in smaller cups (like the bathroom sized cups) I am sure that it would give 25 children a taste. I also have a “small” crock pot so I can only fit about 10 diced up apples in mine. if you have a larger crock pot, you could surely add more apples than mine allowed!
I’m soo excited! I’m heading to school here in a bit and I totally going to do this with my class this week! I think it will be so since were already going to work on apples and Johnny Appleseed, cute unit too, I just bought it! I would also like to know how many this will feed, I have 24 students but would like to invite my principal to join us for this treat
Thank you!
Erika Teach Train Triumph!
This recipe fed 13 people. As you can see, I used tall cups (because that is what I had at my house) and each child got about 1/4- 1/2 of that cup. If you bring in smaller cups (like the bathroom sized cups) I am sure that it would give 25 children a taste. I also have a “small” crock pot so I can only fit about 10 diced up apples in mine. if you have a larger crockpot, you could surely add more apples than mine allowed!
I’m excited for appleweek this week! Excited to use your pack
Yayyyyy!!
I can’t wait to see the pictures, Jen!!!
I am so excited that I just saw this post! I work in a year round school and we track out this week and making applesauce was going to be my big,fun whole group activity on Thursday!
I’m so glad someone else has braved this kind of thing! 
Katelin
Katelin’s Kreative Kindergarten
I am a guy and I have never prepared anything like this. So I tried it and I love it
Can I prepare it this same manner and then “can” it to store it for a later time or will it go bad if it sits after a period of time… or would “canning” it be an entire different process. Any feedback would be much appreciated. Thank you 
We are making our applesauce (and having an apple-filled day) tomorrow! I was “refreshing” my brain on how to make applesauce and came across your post. I will be sure to link back to your blog when I post it on mine.
Thanks! http://www.fashionableinfirst.blogspot.com
I have never taught about apples needing suggestions and ideas loved your website.