Orchard Music and Art
Autumn afternoons are great times
for soaking up color in the world around you, and learning a little more about
that world, too. In the fall, an apple orchard is a virtual symphony of
delight. It's one of those places where you simply have to be there to
understand its magic.
So for a wonderful fall Friday
afternoon, get a group of kids together and set up a tour of an apple orchard
near you. Focus on three beautiful things: apples, music and art.
Maybe in the bus, van or car on the
way there, you can teach them the words to a couple of American folk songs that
have to do with apples. You could print out the lyrics on paper in advance and
pass them around to sing as you travel. Or make a lasting memory singing the
apple songs on the hayrack ride or around the campfire, if you're lucky enough
to have those two activities as part of your experience.
Preschoolers
and early elementary kids will enjoy switching vowel sounds with the old American
folk song, "I Like to Eat Apples and Bananas." Hear a sample and get the simple
words on http://www.songsforteaching.com/folk/applesandbananas.htm
No trip to an orchard would be
complete without a little talk about Johnny Appleseed. You can teach them this
famous Johnny Appleseed song, used frequently as a blessing song before a meal:
http://www.educationalsynthesis.org/music/Appleseed.html
Or there's a World War II tune the
Andrews Sisters famously warbled, captured on this website with a neat old
painting: "Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree With Anyone Else But Me," http://www.bittybitznpieces.com/dontsitundertheappletree.htm
If you can scrounge a number of
artist's easels, some watercolor paper and paints, they would be great to set
up for a little painting practice, too. Big pieces of cardboard on each child's
lap would work, too. Provide real watercolor paper and a paint set for each
child, with a container of water. Make sure they write their names on the back
before they start.
You can give the children direction
on watercolor painting from a source like this one: http://www.arts.ufl.edu/art/rt_room/teach/encounters/painting_encounters.html
Perhaps they would like to zero in on painting one apple in detail, or one
tree, or try to capture a whole hillside with the haywagon and other details.
It's up to the artist!
You can lay the paintings on the
ground, weighted by a rock or other object, while you tour the rest of the
orchard, and they'll be dry by the time you come back.
It's best to have an orchard
employee tell the children a little about the orchard and answer questions.
Here are some items that might get the children thinking:
n The typical orchard may
lose 5% of its trees each year to invading deer, who love to eat the bark off
the apple trees, and entire branches with fruit on them, too, if they have a
chance. There's nothing the orchard can do, because most orchards are 'way too
big to make it affordable to put up a tall enough fence to keep deer out.
n Mice nest around the
bases of apple trees, and then will gnaw on the trees and bark and can kill
them, so orchard managers must be diligent about removing grass or weeds under
trees.
n Pesticides are applied
with extreme caution, since apples are everyone's favorite edible fruit. Trees
typically are sprayed 15 times a year in a highly organized, highly regulated
sequence to keep pest losses down.
n Orchard managers must let
apples that drop naturally stay where they are, on the ground. They can't use
them in pies, cider or anything else that's for sale because of federal health
regulations. A common practice is to let nonprofit groups come in periodically
and harvest "free" apples from the ground. It keeps the orchard neater, anyway.
n Most orchards have an
apple processing facility on site, as well as a cider press and perhaps a
pie-baking operation. All food-handling equipment is scrubbed meticulously,
because apple juice is so darn sweet and sticky, and so darn attractive to insects
of all kinds. The typical orchard manager might require three hours a day of
cleaning around the production, just to make sure.
By Susan Darst Williams • www.GoBigEd.com • After School Treats 037 • © 2006
