This time of year my book Golden Delicious:  A Cinderella Apple Story is always popular for teachers to read to their students.  In addition to the wonderful pictures from Kathleen Kemly, the tale about the discovery of the Golden Delicious apple in West Virginia is a true story! I've run across some great ideas for classroom activities to accompany reading my book and I'd love to share!

Fun Apple Activities
Probably most appropriate for older grade school students, this was my children's (Mary and Ben) favorite activity when they were little.  See how to make a "shrunken apple head" here.

Did you know that there's a star inside an apple?  Use this cute idea from The Very Busy Kindergarten Classroom as a fun way for children to learn more about an apple's interior.  Students can stamp the apple half and make a print onto a card.  

Who knew the apple could be a great tool to teach kids about math?  This activity from Mamas Like Me shows how to use construction paper and pom-poms to make apple trees into a fun re-usable math lesson.

Here's a way to help children grow an apple tree from the seeds of an apple.

​Do you have any fun ideas for activities to accompany my book?  Please share in the comments and see below for a video from Read Aloud West Virginia of me reading from Golden Delicious:  A Cinderella Apple Story.

My apple book, Golden Delicious:  A Cinderella Apple Story, about the discovery of this apple variety, gets a fresh bushel of interest during apple season each year.  I am always delighted to see people writing reviews on other websites about how they enjoyed the book as both a great story, and as an interesting piece of history.

Here are a few reviews I really like: 

From GoodReads.com:

"I am looking for GOOD quality kiddie lit to use with my students. Smucker, who is a prolific writer of anything West Virginia and in fact just anything, tells the story of West Virginia's state fruit, the Golden Delicious apple. In addition to her story, she does go into detail about it and the Golden Grimes, one of the varieties found in West and thought to be brought here by Jonathan Chapman, aka Johnny Appleseed.

In addition to its regional appeal to me, I think the book also shows kids that people are often looking for improvements on things we have and what we think are impossible to improve. It shows that ingenuity can create good things."  - Katy


From KirkusReviews.com:
"This lightly fictionalized story of the golden delicious apple truly reads like a fairy tale. In 1905 Missouri, the famous Stark Bro’s Nursery is the place farmers send their apples, hopeful that the brothers will want to sell the apples to their customers. But Paul and Lloyd are picky, likening each taste of a new apple to trying a glass slipper on another woman’s foot. Meanwhile, in West Virginia, Anderson Mullins discovers a one-of-a-kind apple tree on his property that produces the most delicious golden apples. They win fair ribbons, yield year after year and stay sweet even through winter storage. In 1914 he sends three to the Starks and it becomes their Cinderella apple. Paul journeys to West Virginia to buy the apple tree, bringing back twigs to graft onto the trees back home. And from that one tree, every golden delicious apple is descended. The colors of Kemly’s charming watercolor-and-ink illustrations neatly evoke the time period and the agricultural theme. A standout amidst the proliferation of apple books found in elementary classrooms."


From Amazon.com:
The Golden Delicious is my favorite apple! I was surprised to learn that its origins began in my home state of West Virginia. I enjoyed learning the history behind the sweet fruit and how different types of apple trees are developed. The book was well written and beautifully illustrated.  ---- Jennifer Weingardt

Thanks to everyone who has enjoyed this book and shared their opinions.  It's still one of my favorites.