All About Apples: Build Vocabulary and Language Skills at Home

When was the last time you had an apple?

Maybe you had apple in a granola bar, apple sauce or a slice of pie.

Apples are everywhere, especially in the fall.

Learn more about this wonderful fruit with these simple language-building activities.

Parts of a Whole

Do you know what’s inside an apple?

Apple seeds!

If you plant an apple seed it may grow into a sprout.

With sunlight and water, that sprout could someday grow into a tall apple tree!

Point to and name the parts of the apples below.

Illustration showing the parts of an apple: stem, skin, seeds, and core, for teaching parts of a whole.

Sequencing: First, Next, Last

We talked about the cycle of planting a seed to grow a new tree.

Now lets use some sequencing cards to talk about the basic concepts first, next, and last.

These words are often used in directions or stories to tell the order of when things happen.

  • First, we start with an empty basket waiting to be filled.

  • Next, we climb a ladder to pick apples off the tree.

  • Last, we fill our basket. They are ready to be washed and eaten.

Sequencing cards showing steps: empty basket, picking apples, and a basket full of apples.

Here is another set of sequencing cards.

Can you make up sentences about each card using the words, first, next, and last?

(Hint: use the part of an apple vocabulary above to help you.)

  • First, ______________________.

  • Next, ______________________.

  • Last, ______________________.

Basic Concepts: More and Less

We can use our language skills to help with this math activity.

The teacher wants to know which picture in each box has more apples and which has less.

The words more and less are words that help us compare the quantity, or how many, objects there are.

In the first box below the top basket has less apples and the bottom basket has more.

See if you can find the baskets with more and the baskets with less in the next two boxes.

(Hint, you can also count the apples. The basket with the higher number of apples will have more).

Three more or less basic concept cards of baskets with apples

Excellent job!

Let’s get more practice by telling which apples have more or less seeds.

Then finish with finding the trees that have more or less apples.

Six more or less concept cards of apple seeds and apples on trees.

Matching Apples

Below are ways we can eat (or drink) apples.

Find two of each item listed below to make a match.

  • applesauce

  • apple juice

  • apple pie

  • apple slice

  • apple cider

  • apple snack bar

Six sets of matching pictures; apple juice, pie, slices, cider, snack bars, and apple sauce.

What is your favorite way to eat apples?

Ask the person with you to tell you how they like to eat apples.

Answers

More and Less (top then bottom):

basket of apples: more/less, more/less

apple seeds: less/more, more/less, more/less

apple trees: more/less, less/more, more/less

Lia Kurtin