Portfolio Friday #8 - and some APPLE BUTTER :)

We started a new curriculum this week - Five in a Row. I L O V E it!!! We do more of a "three in a row" setup, only schooling MWF, and then making our own "unit" the following week similar to the story we read. I skip language arts and math or art (depending on the week), and add those subjects in at a pre-k level to our daily morning work.

This week I chose "How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World" as our book, specifically for "fall" . . . and because I love to bake :) It's the story of a little girl who travels the world to get the ingredients for an apple pie (Italy for wheat, Sri Lanka for cinnamon, etc.)

First thing I did after I did a quick read of the book was create a "Quiet Tray" themed to the book. I set the timer for 20 minutes and let her little mind explore.

Geography

This week I used some printables from homeschoolshare.com for geography. We are making an "Apple Pie" lapbook, so they fit right in. I will share the complete book next week after our "world travel" unit. We identified the countries mentioned in the book, and briefly talked about different languages and cultures. I believe it is more appropriate for her age to only introduce these ideas, and explore them as she shows more understanding.

Smelling cinnamon from Sri Lanka

Math
The math lesson mentioned in the curriculum had to do with measurement or subtraction (you choose from a variety of activities for each subject). I thought they were both slightly over her head, so instead, we made apple butter and did our own math! We weighed the apples at the store, counted how many we put in, did a brief lesson on "time" with the crock pot, and saw how one cup of apple butter looked like "more" or "less" in different sized containers. Then we took a bunch to the ladies in my women's ministry at church, because we ended up with about three times the amount photographed!

Science
The book we read has a page explaining how this little girl turned all of the fresh product into ingredients (grinding the wheat into flour, evaporating the saltwater to salt, churning the milk into butter, etc.). We attempted the "saltwater evaporation" project that FIAR suggested. However, Hurricane Sandy turned our project into a saltwater flood, so I winged it and we made butter. Not sure how much "science" was involved, but hey, it's good butter :)

 Removing the whey

We also did a few non FIAR activities this week. Here, you see our playdate with a new homeschool friend (That second picture is hide and seek. She was really good.) and Baby J playing with our new bible character puppets.

Now for the apple butter recipe:
6 lbs peeled cored cut up apples
3 1/2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt

Mix ingredients together and place in crock pot. Cook on high for 1 hour, low for 7-8 hours, and then low for 1 hour with lid off, stirring frequently throughout the process. Use food processor to obtain desired consistency.