Category Archives: First Grade

The fall book Apple Farmer Annie is a fun starting point for KWL charts, creative writing, art projects, and field trips for kindergarten and first grade students.

Apple Farmer Annie by Monica Wellington [Puffin Books, 2001] is the delightful story of Annie, a young woman who owns an apple farm and sells her products at the farmer’s market in the city. The book has bright, colorful illustrations that appeal to younger children as well as simple text making it an ideal read aloud. The story teaches children what an apple farmer does and some of the ways apples can be used, all in the context of the charming illustrations.

Apple Farmer Annie Synopsis

Annie is an apple farmer with a large orchard of various kinds of apples. Each fall she picks her apples, sorts them, and then uses them for various purposes. She makes cider, applesauce, muffins, cakes and pies with her apples. She saves the most beautiful apples to sell.

Annie loads her apples and apple products into her truck and drives to the city’s farmer’s market. She sets up her stand and is busy all day long selling her apples and the other things she made. At the end of the day, she packs up and goes home. Annie is very tired at the end of day when she gets home and puts on her pajamas, but she is happy because she enjoys having her own apple farm.

After the story, there are three recipes for Applesauce, Apple Muffins, and Applesauce Cake with Butter Frosting.

Apple Farm or Orchard KWL

The best way to learn about apples is to visit an apple orchard. Before going, read aloud Apple Farmer Annie as well as Apple Cider-Making Days to acquaint students with the workings of an apple farm and/or cider mill. A field trip also lends itself well to a KWL exercise.

Make a large chart with three columns and label them from left to right: Know, Want, Learn. Before reading the books, ask the students what they know and make a list of facts they already know about apples, apple farms and apple products. Then ask the students what they want to learn on the trip. After the field trip, complete the last part of the chart, making a list of what the students Learned.

Apple Taste Testing

If there isn’t an apple farm nearby for a field trip, it is still possible to give students a small taste of the farm! Bring in a variety of apples for a tasting party. Make a few different dips to go with them and enjoy trying apples of different colors, textures and tastes.

Apple Farmer Annie Writing Prompts

Students can write stories about Annie using these writing prompts.

• Annie’s Applesauce Accident
• Too Many Apples for Annie
• Annie’s Apple Pie Contest
• The Mystery of Annie’s Disappearing Apples

Colorful Graphic Apple Art Project

Apple Farmer Annie is illustrated in a bright graphic style. Provide students with die cuts of apples, trees, pies, trucks and other items from the story. Have them make a picture about Annie using both the die cuts (glued on) as well as their own hand-drawn illustrations. Students may either dictate a sentence about the picture for the teacher to write on the picture or write it themselves (if able).

Enjoying the fall season with kindergarten and first grade apple units, apple activities and apple-themed books is a great way to give students hands-on experiences. By preparing easy lessons and crafts based on the book Apple Farmer Annie, students can be prepared for a field trip to an apple orchard and make the most of the learning experience. For more ideas, see my post Kindergarten and First Grade Apple Unit Ideas, Crafts and Books.

Don’t miss some of my apple themed teaching materials!  Apple Fact Cards for Calendar Pocket Charts are a fun extension for any study of apples!

And don’t miss some of my favorite apple books!

Scarecrows are a fun part of fall, and kindergarten and first grade children will find a special unit featuring them along with barns and animals to be enjoyable. Primary aged children will enjoy themed read alouds and writing about the books by using creative writing prompts and other project ideas.

Barn Dance Read Aloud Book
Barn Dance! by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault is the delightful story of a young boy who sneaks out to the barn in the middle of the night when he hears the animals and scarecrow head out there for a hoedown. The scarecrow leads the way with his fiddle playing and the animals join in with a wild dance in the barn. This Reading Rainbow Book has fun language and entertaining illustrations that will appeal to young children.

Inside a Barn in the Country Fall Themed Rebus Story
Inside a Barn in the Country: A Rebus Read-along Story by Alyssa Satin Capucilli is a funny rebus story that allows even non-readers to participate in telling the story. Disaster strikes in the barn when the cat scares the mouse, who wakes up the horse, who wakes up the cow and so on. What does the farmer think of it all? One can only imagine he’s not terribly happy with the chaos in his barn. Young children will enjoy this predictable, humorously illustrated story.

Story Sequence Activity
Have students retell the most important parts of Barn Dance! in a story sequence activity. Provide each student with a large piece of white paper folded into four sections. In the first section, have them draw a picture and write a sentence about something that happened at the beginning of the story. In the second section, have them tell about something that happened in the middle of the story. In the third section have them tell what happened at the end. In the last section, have them tell their favorite part of the story.

Students can write their own sentences or dictate to an adult if they are unable to write. Prior to writing the story, create a word bank on the board or a large sheet of chart paper so students can find the words they need.

Create a Rebus Story
After reading Inside a Barn in the Country: A Rebus Read-along Story, have students create their own rebus story. Have them select five characters that will be drawn as pictures and then write a story to share with the class.

Scarecrow Writing Prompts

• The Day Our Scarecrow Came to Life
• The Mystery of the Unstuffed Scarecrow
• If I Were a Scarecrow
• Why Scarecrows Have Patched Clothing
• The Scarecrow Family Moves to the Big City

Barn and Animal Writing Prompts

• A Secret Barn Hideout
• Enjoying Fall in the Barn
• The Haunted Barn
• The Best Way to Use a Barn
• Barn Sweet Barn

Fun read alouds, interesting writing prompts, and creative writing projects can be easy to prepare for kindergarten and first grade students. With a theme like scarecrows, barns and animals, the subject matter is sure to be a hit during the busy fall season. I have more easy ideas available on topics such as Apple Unit Ideas, Pumpkin Unit Ideas, Fall Unit Ideas, and October and Fall Classroom Ideas.

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