The Apple Doll

This book is one of my favorites!  The Apple Doll by Elisa Kleven is about a little girl, Lizzie, who has an apple tree outside her house.  She is afraid to start school and the morning she is to leave, she climbs into her tree and picks a shiny apple and attaches a twig body.  She feels better having a "friend" to talk to.  But at school, no one understands.  Her teacher thinks its food and makes her put it away.  Her classmates make fun of it for being an apple and having leafy hair.  She and her family brainstorm different things they can do to Susanna (the apple doll) to make her last longer.  Lizzy's mother shows her how to make Susanna into an apple-head doll by peeling the fruit, carving her features, preserving her with lemon juice, and letting her smiling face wrinkle as it dries. Newly aged but rejuvenated, Susanna accompanies Lizzy to school again and becomes the model for a class craft project.  Now Lizzie has lots of friends and they all have apple doll friends as well!

This was our first focus book for Co-op.  The kids were really engaged and the boys started shouting, "are we doing to make an apple doll?" before the story was even over.  This project needs to be done in stages, but is oh-so-fun!!!

First, each child received one big apple and worked their little finger muscles and motor skills with the apple peelers trying to get the skin off!

Luke.

Kahlan.

Annette.

Eli.

Addison.

In the end, they all had quite a bit of help from the mommies in the room :)  but they got to enjoy some tasty apple peels!

While the girls snacked on their peels, the boys went on to design their dolls' faces and clothing.  Today they just did it on paper as we needed the heads to dry before attaching their bodies or clothing.  They both designed some great apple super heroes!

Next, they all helped describe how they wanted their faces carved onto the apples.  This part is really fun as it will distinguish one doll from another; and how the finished product (head) ends up coming out is quite a surprise!

The next step is to soak all the heads in lemon juice for quite some time to help preserve them.  Then they go on the lowest setting of your oven for days.  These heads took me all week to dry out.  Each day you will see the getting smaller and smaller and more wrinkly.  They turn into the sweetest of little granny faces.  

After apple heads are dry and not wet or spongy anymore they should look something like this:

 Insert some beads for eyes...

 And add a little color if you want.

 They also can turn out something like:

 or...

how about this grumpy dude?

 or even with the help of paint, like these:

BUT....no.  Not ours.  Why?  Because of 6 days of drying - 6 days of drying to perfection, the night before the kids came back to finish their dolls, I forgot they were in the oven and turned it waaaay up to preheat it for a pie!!!!!!!!!!!!  Yep, they burnt.  We now had Indian dolls.  Or, as you'll see, they turned out a little more maybe Jamaican?

Anyway...After the dolls were dried to a crisp, I took wooden skewers with pipe cleaners attached to them and pushed them up through the heads.  Then the pipe cleaner was wrapped around the stick to create the body and then more were attached to make the arms and legs.  We had this all done for the children when they arrived.  We had also laid out lots of supplies for the kids.  They were able to see their dried dolls and start designing their "outer wear" - hair, crowns, hands, feet, capes, belts, shirts, pants, robes, dresses, tutus, necklaces, earings, etc!!  It was a BLAST!

Yes, the moms GREATLY enjoyed themselves too :)  and although Luke looks a little bored here, I'm sure it's just because they had to be hands-off around the glue gun!

They all turned out very uniquely and the kids just loved them.  The moms tossed around the idea of making some for ourselves because we had so much fun too!  Check out some of the finished products...

Kahlan's.

Eli's - they had matching necklaces and tutus (and I have no idea why she's crying in this picture.)

Addison's - "Lightning"

Luke's 

Annette's

The kiddos and their dolls.

Dolly love.

Luke's goes flying!!!

NOW GO MAKE SOME!

Apple Month

September has been apple month for the Co-op.  Here are a few things we have been busy doing and would be easy to do in your own home.  Keep in mind the Gloucester library has a great selection of fall books to check out!

Apple Taste Testing and Graph Making
Many of the apple books stress the huge variety of apples that grow in our country.  Jocelyn brought 4 different apples to share with the kids - talking first about their attributes - how they looked, were alike, different, etc.  Then the kids got to taste each one and used descriptive words to talk about how they tasted - sweet, sour, crunchy, soft, etc.  If the children liked one, they would draw a smiley face under that apple and next to their name.  If not, a frown.  At the end of the taste test, they added up the results and then graphed them.  Jocelyn taught about the way graphs can help us gather and understand information.  They tried a bar and line graph.

The boys got in on the action too while Janey was napping!

How to Make and Apple Pie and See the World

Deanne read this book to the group today.  In the book, the girl travels the world to find the ingredients she needs for her apple pie since her local market is closed.  (Of course!)  Deanne created flags of each country the girl traveled to and showed them everytime the ingredient or country was mentioned.  

Italy::Semolina Wheat; France::Eggs; Sri Lanka::Cinnamon; Ocean::Salt; England::Milk; Jamaica::Sugar; Vermont::Apples

After reading, the kids were brought to the table to view the ingredients and asked if they could remember where all the ingredients came from.  Deanne gave them a recipe that they took turns adding ingredients for.  It was fun to hear her explain 1c., 1/2c. 1/4c. and show the kids that by using the measuring cups first.  Then (while the playdoh they just made cooked), she took an apple and explained whole, half and quarters by cutting it up.  Lastly, the children all got their red, cinnamon playdoh and were asked to divide it in half and then in quarters.  Awesome!

APPLES!!

Ideas, recipes and facts from An Apple a Day by Jennifer Storey Gillis...


*Best apples for snacking:  Macs, Empire
*Best apples for pie:  Nothern Spy


Freezing Apples
Peel, core and slice thinly your apples and drop them into lemon water for 5 minutes.  (Lemon water = 1 gallon of cold water and 2 tbl. lemon juice)  Sprinkle sugar over the bottom of a cookie sheet, layer on apples, sprinkle more sugar, continue until done with apples.  Place apples in freezer bags and freeze until ready to use them in sauce, pies, etc!


Drying Apples
Core apples and slice them into 1/4inch rings.  Thread apples onto a string and hang them to dry in an airy, dry place.  Cover with cheesecloth.  When apples are fully dry, pack them in containers and use for baking or eating.




Broiled Apple Kabobs
6 apples
1/4c. butter
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1 tbl. smooth peanut butter

Wash and core the apples.  Cut each apple into 12 pieces.  Put the apples onto skewers.  Melt butter in a small pan over low heat, mix in the rest of the ingredients until smooth.  Take a basting brush and brush the mixture onto the apples.  Broil for 4 minutes, turning 2-3 times.


Apple Pizza
1c. butter (room temp)                       Red jam (your favorite)
2/3c. sugar                                         Ground almonds (optional)
1 egg                                                  Dried or fresh apple slices
1tsp. vanilla                                
2 1/2c. flour
1/2tsp. salt
1tbl. cinnamon
peanut butter

Mix butter and sugar together till creamy and smooth.  Beat in eggs and vanilla.  Slowly add the flour, salt and cinnamon.  Completely mix the dough until it forms a dough.  Cover the dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 3 or 4 hours, until chilled.  Grease cookie sheet and preheat oven to 350 degrees.      Sprinkle a little flour onto a surface and roll out your dough till it's about 3/8 in.  Lift the "crust" onto the cookie sheet.  Bake the cookie crust for about 8-10 minutes till dough is slightly browned.  Cool crust thoroughly before adding toppings.  Spread crust with peanut butter, then add the sauce - jam.  Arrange apple slices and sprinkle with ground almonds.  Cut in pizza style wedges and serve with cold milk.  ~Mangia bene!