Being a kindergarten teacher and having a son in preschool, I am finding myself eating, breathing and sleeping apples this week. In honor of John Chapman (also known as Johnny Appleseed)'s birthday, it is short a week in my classroom (the a sound found at the beginning of the word apple). We study how an apple grows, sing apple songs, read apple books, make our own apple books, sort and graph apples, make apple patterns and prints, and finally on Friday dress as Johnny Appleseed and make applesauce. In addition, I will be taking a day off this week to go on my son's first field trip of the year to a local, you guessed it, apple orchard.

Therefore I thought it would be only appropriate to review an apple book this week. I have tons of apple themed books in my classroom, but I cannot lie, most of them are just okay. Searching the library this year however, I came across a really cute book that teaches kids all about apples in an educational way. Apples A to Z written by Margaret McNamara and illustrated by Jake Parker provides the reader with apple appropriate words for each letter of the alphabet. Each page gives information about apples as fox and bear go from A to Z. Fun facts are found throughout the book, for example, did you know that almost 68 million tons of apples are harvested a year? The pictures are cute and animated. I also love that there are apple activity ideas, jokes, and facts found in the back of the book. So celebrate Johnny Appleseed's birthday by reading an apple book and visiting an apple orchard near you!