- 2 days ago

bushels of fun! apple volcanoes, poison apples & more!

Thursday, October 3, 2024

Hello October!

Are your Littles getting excited for Halloween?

Those in our lives already have their costumes planned

and are ready to decorate

as we enter this spooky month!

With the arrival of October,

we’re excited to see that the leaves are starting to turn to gorgeous colors

here in the Twin Cities!

We thought this would be a great time

to bring you some apple fun to enjoy with the Littles in your life!

After all, what is better than biting into a crisp apple

when the air is cooling and the days are getting shorter.

Get ready for our Bushels of Fun!

One of our greatest joys as GRANDS is having the opportunity

to explore the world with our Littles

and see everything in a new way, through their excited eyes!

Each of the APPLE ACTIVITIES we’re sharing today

Is something you can experience with the Littles in your life…

your grandchildren, kids in your care or classroom or your own youngsters!

Hopefully you know by now that we do our best to highlight activities that are

simple, cost effective and, above all… FUN!

So, today we’re sharing two new ideas

and then revisiting three favorites that we first posted last year on the blog

or on our OGL Instagram and Facebook sites

Laura and Little L had such fun with this easy kitchen science activity!

Your Littles are bound to love it, too!

During my last visit to Madison

I brought a few simple ingredients from the kitchen.

We were ready for some fizzy fun!

WHAT YOU NEED:

• 1 or more apples

• baking soda

• vinegar

• liquid food coloring

• a squeeze bottle (or a small pitcher/measuring cup works, too)

• a tray or cookie sheet (to contain the mess! 😉)

WHAT TO DO:

Step 1 - Carefully use a knife to make a hole in the top of an apple.

Then use the knife to make the hole bigger. Older Littles can use a spoon to dig out the contents once you’ve cut out the initial hole. Repeat for each apple you are using.

Step 2 - Put your apple(s) on a tray. Fill each hole with baking soda - Little L used a plastic spoon to do this and I only had to help… a little! (At this point, I was very happy to have the tray underneath the apples!)

Step 3 - Pour vinegar into the squeeze bottle (or the small pitcher/measuring cup). To make your vinegar last longer, you can dilute it with some water - 1/3 water to 2/3 vinegar. Add food coloring to the vinegar. Your Little will love this step and the opportunity it provides to explore and experiment!

NOTE: We made our vinegar turn yellow first and then, later, after we’d explored a bit, we added some drops of blue to turn our vinegar green.

Of course, we had to nibble a few apple slices while experimenting!

YUM!

Step 4 - It’s time for your volcanoes to erupt! Slowly squeeze (or pour) the vinegar into each apple and watch to see what happens!

Add more vinegar until the fizzing subsides and watch your Little be amazed!

(Watch the video below as Little L slowly discovers how it all works!)

Let your Littles continue to explore their erupting volcanoes by offering more baking soda and vinegar. Give your Littles eye droppers and/or spoons so they can squeeze, scoop and pour some more! You coul even wash out the inside (and outside) of each apple, dry it and then begin again!

This is an oldie but a goodie!

It’s simple to make and simple to set up!

Check out Laurie’s GRAND friends as they demonstrate how to play this fun game!

WHAT YOU NEED:

• 12 “apples” - 11 red and 1 green (the “poison apple”) You can make these out of paper, fun foam or you can even draw them on squares of paper!

READY TO PLAY:

Step 1 - Spread the 12 “apples” out on a table or playing space.

Step 2 - Each player can take 1 or 2 apples per turn.

Step 3 - The person stuck with the poison apple loses the round! The winner gets a point. Play 5 or 10 rounds and keep track of points to determine an overall winner!

This is a great game for all ages!

Younger Littles will just choose random apples.

Older Littles (and even your Middles!) will try to strategize as they play!

Last year, we wrote three posts devoted to the topic of apples!

We benefited from a refresher of each this year

and we thought you might, too!

Below, we’re revisiting a few of our faves!

Lots of fun for Littles - toddlers through elementary school - and GRANDS, too!

🍎 Washing Apples!

You can keep your toddler and preschool Littles busy for some time with this activity! Grab a few apples and a brush or two and fill a plastic bin part way with water! Then let your young Littles explore as they wash away! Add more interest by including different colored apples as well as different sizes. It’s a great way to introduce new vocabulary, too!

🍎 “I Spy” at the Apple Orchard!

In our On the Go with the Grands! I Spy Fall! post, we shared two I Spy hunts - one to use at a Pumpkin Patch and another to use when visiting an Apple Orchard! An I Spy activity is a wonderful way to use our five senses and our Littles (even infants) will benefit from hearing the vocabulary!

Feel free to use our hunts (we’re highlighting our Apple Orchard one in today’s post) as inspiration in creating your own list, personalizing it for you and your family. You can also screenshot the list we’re providing below and then print out multiple copies OR you can pull up this blog post on your phone and work right from there!

We’d love to travel with you on your outing! 😍

🍎 Apple Pizzas!

This treat is so fun to make with Littles anytime but especially after a trip to the apple orchard! You can find the full recipe in our post, Apple Pizzas! Cooking with Our Littles!

Last year Laura’s Little L had fun prepping (and eating) the apple strings we made as we peeled and cored the apples for this dish!

🍎 A Special Apple Story!

Did you know that every apple has a star inside? We didn't learn this until we were adults and, each year, our students would be amazed when we'd reveal the hidden star! In last year’s post, A Special Apple Story for You and Your Littles! we presented a story that we love sharing with the Littles in our lives! It includes a bit of mystery and a touching message at the same time! It even works as an impactful story of faith, too!

Join Laurie as she offers tips for telling a story to Littles, including ways to increase engagement… And she even provides a script so you can personalize the apple story for your own Little!