Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, November 7, 1993 TAG: 9311080133
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: MELISSA DeVAUGHN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
In the school's first Apple Festival, the kids celebrated this fruit that in theory will gain them their teacher's admiration and adoration.
``Last year I did a Johnny Appleseed birthday party to celebrate his birthday,'' said fourth-grade teacher Wanda Chalmers. This year, the two fourth-grade classes decided to go together and with twice as many children involved, the teachers decided a festival would be better.
Chalmers and fourth-grade teacher Lorrie Sprague were dressed for the occasion in red felt apple costumes filled with pillow stuffing to give them just the right amount of apple-shape. They each wore red caps, complete with brown apple stem and green apple leaves on either side.
The festival included apple games, apple face painting, apple burritos (filled with apple butter instead of beans), apple smiles (apples sliced into smiley-faces, attached with peanut butter and marshmallows), fried apples and the apple barrel game, a pick-up sticks type of game in which the pupils remove an apple without disturbing the rest of the pile.
The children performed skits, songs and plays they had written about apples and Johnny Appleseed. They even sang an ``apple rap.''
The pupils have been learning about apples for the past five weeks, starting off with books on ``Johnny Appleseed,'' the wilderness adventurer known for planting apple trees all over America. They researched the many different varieties of apples. They even learned about cross-pollination.
The Apple Festival was a culmination of their studies and celebration on Appleseed's birthday which supposedly was in late September.
``I think they loved it,'' Chalmers said of the all-day festival held in each teacher's classroom. ``It was a celebration of a fruit, and a lesson in cooperation.''
The pupils learned other interesting facts about apples:
The apple is the most valuable of all fruits growing on trees.
The apple came to America as an immigrant along with the English settlers.
The United States is one of the world's largest producers of apples.
But it seems the favorite part of this study for Chalmers and Sprague's pupils was tasting the apples.
``I like the green, sour [apples], the Granny Smith's,'' said 9-year-old Jermain Rogers.
``My favorite part was tasting the apple butter,'' Olivia Scott, 9, said. ``We made it in a crock pot.''
Now that the Apple Festival is over, will Chalmers concentrate on a new fruit to study?
``No way,'' she said. ``We're getting ready to study France now and we'll study chocolate next. They love the chocolate unit!''
by CNB