Great Lakes, Great FlavorsTM Michigan Apple Educational Kit

Great Lakes, Great FlavorsTM

Michigan Apple Educational Kit

Designed to Educate About an Important Michigan Product and Industry Reinforces Michigan Core Academic Curricula Outcomes

in Language Arts, Math, Science, Social Studies, and Health Supports Michigan Curriculum Framework Outcomes in Art

Lower Elementary (Kindergarten-Grade 2) Middle Elementary (Grades 3-4) Upper Elementary (Grades 5-6) Middle School (Grades 7-8) Before and After School Programs Summer Programs

Updated 2006

Great Lakes, Great FlavorsTM

Dear Educator: The Michigan Apple Committee, a nonprofit agency representing Michigan's 1,000 apple growers, has developed this "Michigan Apple Educational Kit" to teach students about Michigan's number one fruit crop and the State's number two industry, agriculture. Use it to create an "Apple Unit" that includes Social Studies, Science, Math and Language Arts. With your imagination, many interesting and exciting classroom activities can take place with art, science experiments, and more. Please feel free to copy any of the sheets in the kit for use in your classroom. This educational kit has been developed and evaluated to support the Michigan Department of Education's Content Standards and Benchmarks. It has been designed for ease of use and divided into subject areas. Each subject area is divided with a tab that has teacher information such as learning objectives, activities and vocabulary words. Please help us by returning the enclosed questionnaire upon completion of your "apple unit." We need your input and ideas as we modify and further develop this program We hope that these materials will be helpful to you and that your class finds the apple unit to be a great learning experience! Sincerely, Michigan Apple Committee 13105 Schavey Road, Suite 2 DeWitt, MI 48820 Ph. (800) 456-2753 Fax (517) 669-9506

We Would Like Your Opinion

Please let us know what you think about the Michigan Apple Educational Kit.

Photocopy and return to:

Michigan Apple Committee

13105 Schavey Road, Suite 2

DeWitt, MI 48820

or fax to (517) 669-9506

Your Name: School: Address: Phone: Grade Level:

With how many students did you use the lesson plan?

Was there a sufficient amount of materials for a teaching unit?

Was there enough educational information included for you to comfortably teach the content?

Which parts did you use or feel were most helpful?

Did you feel the lesson plan was organized in a useful way?

Did you make use of any of the suggested reading books to complement your teaching unit?

Overall, how would you rate this program? (circle one)

Excellent

Very Good Average

Poor

Please add any comments you feel would help us as we further develop this program.

Using the Michigan Apple Educational Kit

It's Apple TimeEnjoy!

1. The kit has activities that are designed to teach students about apples and the apple industry and their importance to Michigan.

2. The kit includes seven sections: Michigan Apple Facts Growing Michigan Apples A Bushel of Varieties An Apple a Day Apple Lore Apple Bites Resources

3. The activities are coded at the bottom of each page to help the instructor easily identify grade levels and curricula areas of the lesson or activity: Content Area: Language Arts, Math, Science, Social Studies, Health, Art Levels: Lower Elementary (Kindergarten-Grade 2), Middle Elementary (Grades 3-4), Upper Elementary (Grades 5-6), Middle School (Grades 7-8)

4. The activities are also ideal for enrichment programs, before and after school programs, and summer programs.

5. Each section has identified student learning objectives for use in planning instruction within a curriculum.

6. Each section has a material list for easy preparation. Few materials are required for most activities.

7. The following sections have enhancement ideas: Michigan Apple Facts Growing Michigan Apples A Bushel of Varieties An Apple a Day Apple Lore

8. Activities within a section are designed to be used flexibly according to the time available.

9. Use of an overhead or LCD projector when appropriate may eliminate the need for each student having their own copy and will help reduce use of paper.

10. Ideas are provided for classroom d?cor to promote a fun learning environment.

11. A survey is included for you to provide feedback to the Michigan Apple Committee. Your feedback will be used to guide future development of support and programming.

Michigan Apple Quick Facts

Apples are Michigan's #1 most valuable fruit crop, with a value of over $100,000,000 annually to the apple grower.

Value-added marketing and processing enhance the economic contribution of Michigan apples up to $400-500 million of economic impact annually.

There are over 8 million apple trees, covering 41,000 acres, on 1,000 farms throughout Michigan's Lower Peninsula.

Michigan expects to harvest 18 million bushels of apples annually.

Apples are the largest fruit crop grown in Michigan. Michigan produced over 1.25 billion pounds of fruit in 2004 including apples, tart cherries, sweet cherries, blueberries, peaches, grapes, strawberries, pears and plums. Just over 60 percent of that amount was apples, which totaled 760 million pounds.

Small family farmers who operate their own orchards dominate the Michigan apple industry. According to recent statistics, 99 percent of Michigan orchards had fewer than 100 acres in apples.

Newer apple orchards are tending toward high-density planting, with upwards of 500 trees per acre. Well-trained, high-density plantings come into production much more rapidly than "standard" apple trees of old, so growers can bring desirable new varieties to market more quickly.

Longtime favorite varieties still dominate Michigan's orchards. The most prevalent variety remains the Red Delicious, followed closely by the Golden Delicious. The Gala or Royal Gala apple is rapidly gaining on tradition, however.

Michigan also plays a vital role in processed apples. More than 68 percent of all Michigan apples are processed. Michigan is the largest supplier of apple slices used in commercially prepared apple pies. Michigan apples are also a main source for applesauce, fresh-cut slices, and fresh and shelf-stable apple cider.

 ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download