Mary Lee Mattison

Every Apple Tree has its own Shape and Personality.

I love to substitute teach for elementary schools, the younger the kids the better!
I am always a bit sad when I enter a K or Pre-K classroom in the autumn and see the inevitable, identical construction-paper apple tree orchard all lined up along a wall like wooden soldiers. Each one is carefully copied from the teacher’s example and indistinguishable from one another (except for the child’s scrawled name on the back.)

When did you ever see an apple orchard with rows upon rows of the exact same tree? The parents come for an open house and say “How lovely! Which tree is yours?” The students try to figure out, just by looking, which of the duplicate trees they made.

I understand why it is
preferable for the teacher to have all the pieces precut, and an example tree for the class to look at. Each child is given one trunk, 2 branches, 1 piece of green foliage, and 5 apples- the materials necessary to create one apple tree. It’s hard watching them labor over the exact placement of each apple, constantly looking to the teacher’s example and sneaking a peak at what their fellow students are doing to be sure they have everything perfectly placed.

Let them truly create their own image of an apple tree. Then we would have a proper orchard! Each tree is as wonderfully unique as the child who envisioned it.#