Apple Picking and Painting Apples

Apple picking has been a tradition in my family for over twenty years. Every year we drive from our home in Illinois to a small town in Wisconsin to pick a variety of apples, take a hay ride and buy delicious cider and donuts. This year is no different.

However, this year we are turning this into a bit of a field trip for our preschooler. Because...everything is pretty much a field trip these days. So before we went, we used our Mother Goose Time curriculum box to pull in more educational elements. This month our curriculum kit is themed around Our Amazing Body. We have talked about body parts, our senses and more thus far. Along the way we've practiced writing skills, recorded observations and made multiple art projects.

One art project that happened to line up nicely was an exploration into pointillism. We defined the style of art, looked at an example and proceeded to make out own apple tree paintings inspired by the movement. Mother Goose Time provided the inspiration photo, information, pom pom balls and clothespins. We used these items and then to take it one step further, made a second painting with single and grouped together Q-tips, for a different effect. I like to talk to my son while he's painting about how the art ties into the bigger picture of our month. We talked about how apples keep our bodies healthy and how we can use our senses when explore the orchard and eat the apples.

This month we enjoyed a curriculum box in exchange for sharing our fun experiences, Mother Goose Time provides an amazing list of books that I've been grabbing from our local library to read alongside our lessons. Between projects, reading and the apple orchard experience, my so was able to have a multi-faceted experience that not only resonated as a family outing, but prompted more questions and investigating!