The Life Cycle of an Apple!

The beginning of the school year is the perfect time to introduce an apple unit! Not only does it fit into both back-to-school and fall themes, there are also lots of fun things you can do with it. A great science extension to include in your apple unit is a study of the apple life cycle. From seed to fruit (and everything in-between!), your preschoolers will be amazed at the steps an apple goes through before it becomes the yummy fruit they're used to eating!

In our search for life cycle activities, we stumbled across a great free download from Montessori for Everyone that we thought offered a great look at the life of an apple! Here's how we would use the printables...

• Life Cycle Pocket Chart. Print the life cycle cards in their current size and use them with a pocket chart during instruction time to go over the various stages in the life of an apple.

• Life Cycle Cut & Paste. The worksheet we created works perfectly with cards that have been printed at a reduced size. We took the original file and printed at a setting of 9 pages per 8.5 x ll sheet of paper. Students can then cut out the smaller images and paste them in the correct order on their worksheet.

• Life Cycle Printing Practice Emergent Reader. Again, this activity works best with reduced size cards. We took the original file and adjusted the printer settings to 2 pages per 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper. Students can cut and paste smaller images to the correct book page as well as trace the stage words.

Be sure to grab the free Life Cycle of an Apple resources from Montessori for Everyone to use in conjunction with the printable we provide below.