Apple Tasting Fun For Kids With 3 Helpful Free Printables
The NY weather has finally started to cool down, and autumn is truly upon us. Since we live in upstate New York, apples are a huge part of the fall season for us. Apple picking is a favorite family outing. We stop at local orchards and mills to grab cider or fruit throughout the season. After a recent weekend of apple picking with extended family, I was inspired to create some apple-focused activities for my Pre-K kiddo. Keep reading to learn more about the delicious and fun apple tasting experiences we had! (And don’t forget your helpful free printables!)
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APPLE TASTING FUN WITH HELPFUL PRINTABLES
Treats + Eats For Apple Tasting
Hitting the grocery store with any of my kids can be a challenge! I’ve found that when I involved them in the chore, shopping outcomes are better. I wanted to give my 4 year old some ownership over the apple tasting activity, from start to finish, so I created a shopping list for him. He brought copy of the list to the store with us, along with a clipboard and a pencil, so he could keep track of what we needed for our activity. My son took his role quite seriously, and shopping was a pleasant outing, rather than a burden.
>GET YOUR APPLE TASTING SHOPPING LIST HERE!<
I was careful to include both text and images, since my son is not able to read yet. This gives him the chance to practice pairing text with visuals, and make some reading ‘guesses’, which boosts his confidence in his developing skills. My son’s writing skills are a bit weak, so the fine motor practice of clipping his paper to the board, and checking items off his list as we shopped were extra helpful. Plus, I added just a smidge of math to the very end of the list.
Fresh Fruit Apple Tasting Activity
After all of our fresh apples were washed, we were ready to prepare our apple tasting family dinner. My son loved checking his list to make sure all the ‘right’ apples made it out to the table. I let him help me slice and core the apples, which always makes him feel important. When we had divided up all the apple slices, my son and husband sat down together for some apple tasting science. They each used markers to record their opinions of each apple variety they tried. It was fun to see the discussion they had together, about which was sweetest, which was too tart, etc. After the taste testing was complete and they’d recorded their opinions, they were able to choose their favorite color of apple and record that as well.
>FRESH FRUIT – APPLE TASTING DATA PAGE<
Washing and cutting/coring apples gave #thelittleone some practical, hands-on life skills practice. (And I’m admittedly terrible about cooking with him, so this was a great thing!) He had some practice with both fine motor skills (writing/coloring) and exposure to some basic science principles (comparing, sensing, recording data) while completing his taste test with Dad. (And he ate A TON of fresh fruit, so win-win!)
We tried: red apple / green apple / yellow apple / mixed apple.
Apple Flavored Tasting Ideas
Moving beyond just fresh fruit, we planned a second day of apple tasting- this time with items like cider, juice, and sauce. The taste testing was performed very similarly to the fresh fruit tasting, but gave my kiddo (a pretty picky eater) a chance to try apples in a variety of textures and forms. Although they aren’t included on the data sheet, he’s now also had the chance to try freeze dried apples and apple chips, so approaching the tasting from the ‘I’m a scientist’ viewpoint seems to be helping him keep an open mind about new foods.
>APPLE FLAVORED FOOD – TASTING DATA PAGE<
We tried: fresh fruit / apple juice / apple cider / applesauce.
