The Seasons of Arnold's Apple Tree: A Science Mentor Text and a Free Graphic Organizer

It's September and that means one thing in an first grade classroom . . . it's apple time.  The number of activities you can do with apples is only limited by your time.  Math, science, social studies, language arts, and more, apples lend themselves to so many subjects.  I'm linking up with the Collaboration Cuties to share one of my favorite apple books for their Mentor Text Linkup.  This week's topic is science.
A fav apple book of mine is Gail Gibbons' The Seasons of Arnold's Apple Tree.

This text follows Arnold and his favorite apple tree through all of the seasons.  Arnold loves spending time at the apple tree and it's fun to see how each season brings new adventures with it.  The illustrations in this book show the life cycle of an apple tree, as well as a glimpse at the four seasons.

This book is a simple and engaging story that offers many opportunities for extensions and activities.  One activity I like to do with this story is a four square writing assignment.  Later in the year we use four square graphic organizers as a jumping off points for writing paragraphs.  But in September, my first graders' four squares are a little more basic.  

If you would like a FREE copy of this four square graphic organizer, click on the picture below.  It is a great way to combine science and writing.  (Of course older students can certainly take this graphic organizer further by writing sentences.  A sentence in every square can add up to a coherent five sentence paragraph.)

Here is the scoop on this week's mentor text pick . . .

Be sure to visit Collaboration Cuties for more tried and true science text recommendations.