I may or may not have gotten a little carried away at the apple orchard this weekend…  I got half a bushel!  According to the orchard, that’s 20 lbs!  But if I know these Tugboats like I think I do, they can definitely take care of some apples.

We learned last week, thanks to a generous donation from the Nofziger/Friederichs family, that the children at HCS love to eat apples.  We like them with sweet sunbutter, cream cheese, or just plain!  This week, we’ll continue to enjoy apples for snack, but we are also integrating them into our curriculum.  We built upon last week’s seed projects to talk about how the seeds inside an apple are arranged in the shape of a star.  The Tugboats thought that was super cool!  We cut open several small apples and used them as stamps:

As always, we enjoyed making our art projects as much as we enjoy the final pieces!  An important part of our art curriculum here at Harbor City is that we emphasize the process over the product.  There is so much learning that develops from the exploration of new materials, that if the final product is a sopping wet paper that can’t be salvaged, that’s okay.  One of our students, for example, loves to make careful, deliberate stamps on the page, then uses the stamp to smear the paint everywhere.  From the final piece, you’d never know that stamps were even used.  Watching him paint, however, reveals a lot about what he enjoys about interacting with the paint and the unconventional stamp.

Later this week, we will use apples to do some microwave cooking, create a sensory project, and continue to develop our understanding of the different parts of a plant.  Stay tuned!