How do you like them apples!

One really fun 'learning' thing we've done for school this fall was all about APPLES!  We took out library books on them, what to find at orchards, what you can do with apples and how to pick them.  The more practical part, and most fun, was going out to the grocery store and getting Nora to find all the different types.  She couldn't believe there were soooooo many that we didn't even pick all the different kinds.

Then we displayed them all in our kitchen, with their names and prices... as they do vary quite a bit in price.  The honey crisp came in at the most priciest (and biggest!), and then the cheapest were the McIntosh and Gala.

To add a bit more to our learning, we learnt how to observe what the apple looks like on the outside, as well as the inside when we cut it in half.  So, I got Nora to label each part... hers is the purple paper, and I just love Lily's contribution to our experiment with the yellow paper! :)

Then of course, we can't have an experiment without doing a TASTE TEST!  This was fun, we made up a comparison chart and listed all the apples and then I got the girls to tell me all about the apples using their five senses... so it was neat to see what they'd come up with for smell, taste, looks, feels and sounds.  

Final verdict, which is the best apple?  Here are the results:

• Nora's favourite is the Aurora Apple (the yellow one).  But she may be very biased because it also happens to be the name of her favourite princess (Sleeping Beauty!)
• Lily said she loves the granny smith apples (the green one)... sooooo tart!
• My favourite and it so happens to be Trav's favourite too is the Ambrosia!  My least favourite is the McIntosh, too mushy for me, but I do love how it works soooooo well with the granny smith in apple pies, so I can't totally discount them! :)

Anyways, now I'm totally onto what great treats can we do or make or eat with the apples!  So, we've already devoured a bag of apple chips, but now we're onto making apple pie and possibly, candy apples covered in chocolate and smarties ;)