My favorite Fall fruit is apples because of their versatility. There are so many fun things to do with apples, here are some ideas:

Apple Graphing- Many of you probably do some sort of apple taste test for Rosh Hashanah, but if you didn't, you can now! Prepare a chart with each child's name followed by 3+ blank columns, depending on how many apples you'd like to taste. The classics are of course, Granny Smith (green), Golden Delicious (Yellow), and Red Delicious (Red). If your kids are older, you may want to include Gala or Fuji and point out it's many colors, for fuji you can also point out its crispiness. Prepare slices of each apple for each kid to taste, and pass them out one at a time. Remind kids that we all have different tastes. You may want to give the kids 2 at a time, and ask which was their favorite, documenting on the chart. When you've tasted all apples, describe and show the results to the kids.

 Apple Stamping- Slice apples in half horizontally so that the flower of seeds is visible, and remove the seeds. Use these apple halves as stamps to either dip in ink or paint and create beautiful prints!

Applesauce- Cook apples on stovetop (if you teach older kids you can do this in your classroom with a hot plate) and place them in a bowl. Provide the kids with forks to mash the apples, and season with some cinnamon and sugar- delicious! You can even send some home in small plastic containers!

Fruit Leather- You can either make applesauce or use prepared applesauce for this. You'll need a well oiled baking sheet, and simply spread the applesauce about 1/4 inch thick and bake for 6-8 hours on lo (200-250). When it's done, it will simply peel straight off the pan. I like to give the kids some to taste and then bag the rest and send it home to share with the families.

Apple Mat- Follow the instructions to make Stained Glass except, cut out Apples from red, green or yellow construction paper, and fill in with appropriate colored tissue paper. You can also make the stained glass papers smaller, and add a small hole at the top to create a car hanger, door hanger, etc. (see the picture below).

Apple Cork Stamps- I don't remember where I saw the blog post with this idea, but it's too fabulous not to share! Cut 2 nicks opposite each other in the same end of a cork. This will be your stamp. You can dip into apple colored paints and press onto paper. Once it's dried, you can give the kids brown markers to draw stems.