Apple Graphing with Apple Farmer Annie

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Apple Farmer Annie is a book that I’ve enjoyed using both in my classroom when I was a traditional elementary school teacher and with my own kids as a homeschool mom. It’s a fun book to read when school is starting back or fall is approaching and everything is apple-themed. But it fits in any time of the year, and there are so many fun apple activities that can go along with it, like apple graphing!

One of my favorite apple-themed activities is apple graphing. It’s an activity that can used for hands-on math, comparing amounts and learning how to create a basic bar graph.

About Apple Farmer Annie

Apple Farmer Annie is written by Monica Wellington. Many versions of the book are Spanish/English versions, so you can enjoy learning Spanish words with the kids while you read.

Annie is an apple farmer. Each year at harvest time she picks the apples and uses them to make cider, applesauce, muffins, and more. Then she sells her goodies and some of the best apples at the farmer’s market. The story follows Annie through picking, baking, sorting, and it includes some of Annie’s yummy recipes.

There are some great talking points when you read this book to little ones.

• Talk about fall and the season of harvest.
• What all can we get from apples?
• Look at the colors as Annie sorts the apple types.
• Count the apples with Annie.
• Talk about the market. Why does Annie take her apples there? What else is sold there?
• What are farmers? Can you think of other farmers besides apple farmers?

Apple Graphing Activity

One of the apple activities I like to do after reading this book is apple graphing. With this apple graphing activity, kids can …

• Practice sorting by color.
• Count the apples.
• Compare amounts.
• Add and subtract.

• File folder or cardstock
• Printed apples (I used the template found here and chose black and white.)
• Markers or paint sticks for coloring apples
• Marker for labeling your graph
• Scissors

Color the apples from your printed template in three different colors. I used red, pink, and green. Don’t color them in equal amounts. The number doesn’t really matter as long as they aren’t equal. I used eighteen apples and colored five pink, seven green, and six red. Cut out the colored apples.

Turn the apples over and have kids draw them one at a time. As they pick an apple, talk about the color and have them place the apple in the appropriate column on the graph you’ve created.

Talk about your graph. Have kids count the apples in each group. Compare which group has more. Add the apples. Subtract one group of apples from the whole number. Talk about how graphs allow you to visually see a comparison of numbers.

This graphing activity is a fun one to do with one child or with a group. You can use more apples and a bigger graph if you have a large group of kids. You can also find a template with larger apples if you have room to make a larger graph.

Pick up a copy of Apple Farmer Annie or check it out from your library and enjoy your apple graphing!

Leah Courtney is a child of God, wife, mother, and homeschooling mama. She’s homeschooled four children since birth, and is now the mother of two homeschool graduates. In her (very rare) free time, Leah loves to read and color complicated pictures while listening to audio books. You can find her blogging at As We Walk Along the Road where she’s posting literature-based homeschooling resources and encouragement for other homeschooling mamas.