Europe, Italy, France, England, Sri Lanka, Jamaica, and Vermont are some of the places that we ventured to this week all because of the book How to Make an Apple Pie and see the world. We had a great time flying around the world in our imaginations. We learned that Cinnamon comes from Sri Lanka, Sugar Cane from Jamaica, sea salt from the ocean, and apples from Vermont. Then we used all those ingredients to make our own apple pie!
Some of the books we looked at and read. One of our favourites while exploring England was Come to the Castle. It was written from the perspective of the lord's servants. We found it very entertaining, especially when it got to The Gong Farmer (the guy that shovels the "gong"), which of course the boys found funny. We learned a lot about castle life in thirteenth-century England and there were lots of new words to explore.
We took a look at all the different kinds of apples grown, and picked 3 to remember their names: Granny Smith, McIntosh and Red Delicious.
We then coloured some apples of our own, trying to make each one different.
We tried Pantomiming (Charades) to some of the pictures from our book.
Here Micaiah is sitting down to act out "milking the cow". I had a hard time getting Abishai or Micaiah to participate in acting out a scene, but once started, Micaiah at least thought it was kind of fun.
Looking at pictures of France. Our character got her hen/eggs from France. Micaiah recognizing the Eiffel Tower from a previous study of Paris, France from the book Madeline.
The boys couldn't wait to get started on making an apple pie. My mother gave me a healthy apple pie recipe a while back that I tucked away for such an occasion. I use these cooking times to teach health class. I like to explain the health benefit of each of the ingredients and since this is a "no guilt" apple pie, each ingredient has a benefit for the body.
Micaiah measuring the cinnamon from the "Kurundu tree in Sri Lanka".
Double checking to see if his "rolling out the dough" was working.
Organic apples going in to be coated in coconut oil, cinnamon, and raw honey.
Spelt pie crust made with coconut oil, sea salt and water. The coconut oil makes the hardy spelt easy to roll out. It was thin and crispy, absolutely beautiful; something I'm not used to when making spelt pie crusts.
Asher-baby constantly up and behind you, wanting to be apart of everything.
Pie cooling. Asher reaching to squish it in his fingers.
In-between moments. Abishai's foam patten creation.
Asher puzzling.
Quietly listening to their music.
Art: flip out double-page street scene.
Honourable mention. An unrelated book worth owning––so original.
Science experiment: Part of the humour of How to make An Apple Pie and see the world was that the main character derived salt from salt water by the process of evaporation before she made her apple pie. Here Abishai is dissolving 1/4 cup of salt into 2 cups of water.
"Mommy, the salt is gone!"
Taste testing our dissolved salt water. Abishai was not to be fooled.
You won't be catching Micaiah drinking ocean water in the future.
We poured our salty water into a thin dish. Now we wait patiently for our water to evaporate. I wonder how long it will take with our winter sun?
Baby block building... and smashing.
More in between moments: sponge art...
...Light tracing
...Water play.
...and chalking.
Abishai blowing on the hot apple pie. He kept saying, "this is so good". So good for taste and for health, so eat as much as you want––but wait, save some for your father!
