Well, we too did a unit on apples ... and this isn't our first time. : ) Apple units are always fun to repeat. Well ... not so much repeat as in we study the same thing over & over again. There are a few things that you have to go over each time, but with apples ... there is just so many things you can do ... you just have to choose a few to do each time. If you didn't just choose a few you'd spend a month on apples easy!
One of our wonderful libraries has a homeschool program that meets every other week & they recently did a apple theme too. They had apple tasting, learned how apple trees were planted & how they crossed the different apples to make a new kind of apple, colored apples, went over the seasons of an apple tree, apple nutrition, what foods are made from apples, and made apple pots (pictures below - these are little flower pots that have been painted to look like apples). This library has an awesome homeschool program leader! She comes up with some great ideas & my boys just love going to the homeschool program!
We went to Fuhrmann Orchards in Wheelersburg, Ohio. Paul & Leanne Fuhrmann are the owers & Leanne was our guide for the day. She was a really great guide. She had a book about apple trees that she used as a visual while telling our kids about what apple trees need to grow, went over how they pick apples (did you know that once an apple hits the ground they leave it?), showed us the basket they use to collect apples & how you load & unload it, explained what happens to the apples once they are dropped, and went over the different kinds of apples they grow & what the differences there were between the apples. It was educational even to me & I found oh so interesting!
Look at the faces of those kids. You can just see how they are listening and wanting to learn!!! : )
After that we took a tour of the packaging part of the operation. They sink those large crates full of apples into water & the apples float up out of the crate ... who would have thought of that ... well someone apparently did ... I wouldn't have. I'd just have apples that looked like they've been in a fight!
Here we are being told how the apples are cleaned, sorted, and packaged. Look at those faces again ... don't you love it when you can just see their brains soaking up all that info!?! : )
Stacked crates full of apples - this is inside a giant cooler - so the apples will keep ... oh my it smelled soooo good in there!!!
At the end of our tour they gave the kids a sticker (and a few of us adults were lucky enough to get one too!), coloring book, a pumpkin, and an apple of their choice. Sammy seems to think he's going to keep his pumpkin forever ... I'm planning on having them use the smaller pumpkin for our Pumpkin Seed Count online project! Then they can carve them or paint them or draw on them ... however they want to decorate their pumpkins.
Nana went with us on the field trip too ... she loves this sort of thing ... and before leaving she bought 3 bags of apples, a gallon of apple cider, and one of those apple cider slushies. I would recommend the apple cider slushy to everyone! I didn't think I'd care for it, but it was really good!
Some more random pics of our field trip ... we had planned on doing a corn maze too, but the weather wasn't on our side (it was rainy & cold) but still well worth the trip.
Here my hubby is talking to Paul (owner) about selling their apples & fruit to Wal-mart
I'm glad we finally got to go to the orchard that is close to us! We go to one that is much further away. I knew there was one around here, but until now I had no idea what the name was or how to get there. We'll be visiting the Fuhrmann Orchard again! 
As far as I know they don't have a website, but you can find them on Facebook by clicking here.
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