A man with a pot on his head who traveled the wilderness planting apple trees may sound like a fictional character, but Johnny Appleseed was a real life hero. Appleseed is remembered for his kindness toward animals and humans, but, most important, for planting thousands of acres of nurseries. Celebrate Johnny Appleseed Day with these fun children's activities.
Important Dates
There are actually two dates associated with Johnny Appleseed Day. Some schools celebrate Appleseed at the beginning of the school year on September 26th, his birthday. Others celebrate Johnny Appleseed Day during planting season on March 11th, which is sometimes listed as the day of Appleseed's death.
History
Johnny Appleseed (Chapman) was an American pioneer born in Massachusetts in 1774. Beginning in his 20s, he traveled the wilderness planting apple seeds in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and Ohio. Appleseed was a missionary of the Swedenborgian Church who made it his goal to see that no one ever went hungry. Appleseed lived a simple life, and cartoon pictures of Appleseed often show him barefoot, wearing torn clothing and his cooking pot on his head for a hat. After 49 years of planting apple trees, Appleseed died in 1849.
Printable Pages
Create a Johnny Appleseed word search, vocabulary list or crossword puzzle. Use words like apples, orchard, seeds, pot, John Chapman, pioneer settlers, wilderness, nurseryman, Massachusetts and missionary.
Have children draw a Johnny Appleseed picture and then write a summary about him. For young children, pass out coloring pages of Johnny Appleseed standing by his apple trees.
Apple Stamps
Apple stamps an easy craft to create. Simply cut apples in half, dip sliced sides into paint and stamp the two halves, side-by-side, to create an apple. Use washable yellow, red and green paint to simulate apple colors. You can also cut shapes like stars, hearts and triangles out of the apples to stamp.
Applesauce
Make a simple applesauce recipe. Prep by cooking peeled, sweet apples in a pot of water until they are tender. Then mash the apples with a potato masher or electric mixer. Bring the cooled apple mix to school and let children add spices. For each quart of apples, use the following: 1 cup water, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 tsp. lemon juice, 1/4 tsp. cinnamon and a pinch of salt.
Fingerprint Apple Trees
For this craft, you will need white paper and red, brown and green paint. First stamp the side of your hand from wrist to pinkie in brown paint. Stamp that onto the paper for the tree trunk. Then stamp your index finger in green paint and stamp the paper multiple times to create leaves. Finally, stamp your pinkie finger in red paint and lightly stamp the green leaves to add apples.
Poem
Have children memorize and recite the following poem (author unknown).
Thank you Johnny Appleseed.
We owe you quite a lot,
For the apples that you planted
With a Bible and a cooking pot.
Your seeds were planted far and wide.
You gave a helping hand.
A friendly word you had for all,
Across our frontier land.
Thank you Johnny Appleseed.
We owe you quite a lot.
The lovely trees and apples,
And the lessons that you taught.
Tags: Johnny Appleseed, green paint, planting apple, apple trees, Appleseed quite, Have children, Johnny Appleseed quite
