Johnny Appleseed Day Photo Show

     What a great afternoon!  The weather was gorgeous and we had lots of fun activities planned for the entire second grade.   Each class rotated around to different classrooms for different apple activities.  In Mrs. Shofner's room, students got to taste different foods made from apples.  An apple memory game was played on the SmartBoard in Mr. Lucas' room.  Students got to paint pictures of apple trees in Mrs. Dawes' room.  Mrs. Hays had a special guest in the outdoor classroom for her station - Johnny Appleseed!  He talked about what life was like over 200 years ago, back in the time period when Johnny lived.  We discussed food preservation and how vinegar was important for that, since that was one of the major ways food was preserved back then.  Then came the fun part - we got to make apple cider on a vintage, century old cider press!  Johnny did the cranking (much harder work than it looks) and the kids go to throw the apples in the top of the press.  After the apples get crunched up they get pressed to squeeze all the juice out.  We learned that it is a lot of work to make cider and it takes a lot of apples to make just one gallon of cider.  We used nearly a bushel of apples to make just 1 gallon of cider. Many thanks go out to all the teachers, parents, and other dedicated helpers whose hard work made the afternoon fantastic! Click below to see the video slideshow of our class enjoying the afternoon.