Elementary Economics Lesson Plan on Apples
How People Make a Living by Growing and Selling Apple Products
Sep 4, 2008
When children eat an apple for lunch or drink some apple juice as a snack, they may not appreciate all the work that went into bringing these tasty treats to their table. Use the following literature-based lesson to help children develop an understanding of the apple industry and the job of an apple farmer.
Objectives
- Students will identify the specialized work that people do to grow, manufacture, transport, and market apples and goods created from apples.
- Students will demonstrate an understanding of the business of raising and selling apples by setting up and running an apple stand.
Share the Literature: Apple Farmer Annie
- Display the cover of Apple Farmer Annie by Monica Wellington [Dutton's Children's Books, 2001] and discuss the pictures and title, identifying who is pictured and what she is doing.
- Flip through the book to preview some of the pictures. Have children predict what they think the story will be about. Then, read the story aloud and check predictions.
- Work with children to make a list of the steps in the process Annie follows to make a living: grows the apples; picks the apples; sorts and organizes the apples; uses the apples to make products such as apple cider, applesauce, muffins, cakes, and pies; loads her goods on her truck and drives to the city; sets up a stand in the farmers' market; and sells all her goods for money.
- To check comprehension, discuss how your job is what you do to make money on which to live, and how people give each other money in exchange for goods, like apples. Ask children what Annie's job is and how she gets money. (She is a farmer, and she makes money by selling apples she has grown and apple products she has made from her apples.)
- For assessment, have children write an illustrated set of steps explaining what Annie does to make a living.
Share the Literature: Apple Cider Making Days
- Enrich the lesson for older and advanced younger children by sharing with them the book Apple Cider Making Days by Ann Purmell [The Millbrook Press, 2002].
- Display the front and back covers of the book. Discuss the title and have children identify what is being pictured.
- Flip through the book to preview some of the pictures. Have children predict what they think the story will be about. Then, read the story aloud and check predictions.
- Work with children to make a list of the steps in the process this family follows to make a living: growing apples, picking apples, sorting apples to sell and to make into cider, washing and packaging the apples to sell, using machines to make the other apples into cider; selling their apple products in their store.
- For assessment, have children create an illustrated flowchart explaining what the family does for a living. Note that the flowchart should branch once the apples are sorted into eating apples and apples for cider.
Assessment
Have children use what they have learned about the apple industry and apple products to design and run their own pretend apple stand. For the wares, either use pretend apples and apple products or help children bake some real pies, muffins, and so on. Have the sellers price their wares and all the children use play money to buy and sell them.
Extension Activities
- Take children to a local farmers' market to observe what kinds of apples and apple products are offered for sale there.
- Have older children read the Step Back Science book Bite into an Apple by Lynn Brunelle [Blackbirch Press, 2004] and/or the chapter "From Tree to Market" from An Apple a Day: From Orchard to You by Dorothy Hinshaw Patent [Cobblehill Books, 1990] and make flowcharts tracing the path an apple takes from the branch of a tree to the shelf of a grocery store.
- You can adapt this lesson for use with Patty's Pumpkin Patch by Teri Sloat [G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1999] to show how people make a living growing and selling pumpkins.
For other apple lessons, check out How Do Apples Grow? and Visiting an Apple Orchard. You can also use pumpkin-themed trade books to teach basic economics concepts.
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