Apple Picking Theme

Posted on by Amanda Mays

Apples/apple picking is a fun fall theme that all kids love! Skills targeted in this activity:

  • turn-taking
  • making requests
  • sequencing
  • WH- questions
  • MLU expansions
  • core words
  • basic concepts (colors, prepositions, sizes, same vs.different etc.).

I snagged this awesome apple tree board form the Target dollar Spot for $3, and paired it with the song “Way Up High in an Apple Tree” on Youtube. I play the song, and pause after each apple falls off, and have the kids take turns “shaking” the apple tree and taking an apple off. This activity is perfect for preschoolers or younger elementary (K-2).

This activity is great for preschoolers or little hands, but I wanted to do something a little more age-appropriate for my older kids (3rd-5th graders) in my moderate/severe classrooms. Party City sells this apple tree scene in a 2 pack for $7- so I split it with my colleague so that we now each have our own tree. We cut apples from different colored felt (red, green, and yellow).

We kept them the same size but if you wanted to have more variety for targeting basic concepts, you can make some apples big and some smaller (“Find the big yellow apple! Which apple is smaller?” etc.). Then, I attached small pieces of self-adhesive velcro (the rough side) to the tree so that the felt apples can stick to the tree.

My other colleague found some small baskets that worked perfectly for carrying the apples. You can find inexpensive baskets at The Dollar Tree or Amazon. So, to start off the activity, we reviewed the process of picking apples. We read a book about picking apples, and I taught the kids the sequence of how apples first grow on trees, then we pick the apples, put them in the basket, then eat them! We looked at pictures of different apples and talked about the colors, sizes, the different foods you can make with apples (apple sauce, apple bars, apple juice, apple pie, etc.). One of the classrooms I work in happened to be making their own apple pies the week I was doing this lesson, so their classroom smelled like delicious apples! Next, we sang our apple picking song. Sung to the tune of Frere Jacques, it goes like this:

“I pick apples, I pick apples,

Reach up high, Reach up high,

Get the apple, Put it in the basket,

I eat the apple, Mmmm good!”

Whenever we do themes, we usually have a song similar to this that includes topic-specific language and goes through the sequence of events. After I model the song one time through, each student gets a turn to be the “teacher” and use the pointer to point to the pictures as we sing the song. By doing this, we end up singing the song several times, so the kids get lots of practice using these words and learning the sequence. For kids who are nonverbal or who have lower language, you can record the lyrics into a Bigmack or Step-By-Step so they can still participate 🙂 Next, I taped the tree to the wall in their classroom and we “picked the apples”! I had the students make requests to take turns, asked them various WH- questions (e.g., “what do we put the apples in?“), and talked about the different apples they “picked”. There are several core words we targeted using this activity:

  • I pick apples
  • I want the apple
  • put it in the basket
  • these apples are the same/different color
  • take the apple out of the basket
  • help me pick the apples
  • it’s my turn to pick the apples
  • it is red/green/yellow

To wrap up our apple unit, we had an apple snack tasting- I got this fantastic idea from my colleagues, Alissa Suski and Kristy Orosco. We offered apples, apple cereal, apple bars, and apple sauce. You can also do apple juice, freeze-dried apples, apple cookies, etc. Any food or cooking activity is super motivating for kids and a great opportunity to target making requests and language expansions 🙂

Other apple-themed activities:

  • apple picking songs on Youtube
  • discuss/make a song/draw a picture of the life cycle of an apple (plant the seed, tree grows, apple grows, pick the apple, etc.)
  • apple themed books such as “10 Apples Up on Top”
  • apple arts and crafts (lots of ideas on Pinterest)
  • make your own apple pies or apple sauce

This theme was so fun and facilitated so much language! Please leave feedback if you’ve tried any of this or if you have any other ideas for apple themes in speech 🙂 Thanks for reading!

-Amanda, The SLP Girl