An Apple for the Teacher

As an educational resource, the Yakima Valley Museum would like to provide you with some tools and ideas that will help you utilize our new exhibit on the history of the apple industry; Yakima's Love Affair with the Apple. This exhibition features artifacts, visual information, and interactive elements that will help students understand a little more about a major industry in Yakima. This exhibition will not only feature a history of apples in the Yakima Valley,but will follow the journey of an apple from germination to the local supermarket. Yakima's love affair is documented by the many festivals and paraphernalia demonstrating our connection with the apple. It is our hope to provide a learning experience that allows interaction with historical objects and reinforces that experience with classroom activities.

Preparing for your museum experience

A museum is a special place that collects and cares for objects, as well as interprets and exhibits them for the public. When the students come to the museum, they have the opportunity to encounter objects in a three dimensional space, an experience that complements their classroom and reading activities. The museum provides a visual experience, and may often provide experiences for the other senses as well. Encounters with objects and artifacts provides an opportunity for a specific type of learning; size, texture, color, form, and the sensation from sharing your space with an historical object that you might not otherwise get from a photograph. As a complement to your curriculum, the Yakima Valley Museum can be a partner in the learning experience. Activities in your classroom, both before and after the field trip to the museum, will help enrich the experience. You may wish to structure your study of Yakima's Love Affair With The Apple through ideas outlined in this handbook.

Preliminary activities

This handbook has activities which can help you prepare for your visit to the museum. Classroom activities enrich your visit to the museum by providing the basic building blocks such as the definition of fruit, the history of the apple, and the importance of apples to Yakima.

Visiting the museum

Visiting the museum will not only be an educational experience, but can provide a fun outing for your students. Your class will first explore the special exhibition, Yakima's Love Affair With The Apple, then add context to the apple industry's importance in Yakima's history by touring the rest of the museum. You will find activities in this handbook to use while you are at the museum.

Follow-up activities

Follow-up activities in your classroom will help reinforce your recent visit to the museum. Your students will be able to apply their field trip experience to classroom activities while you assess the value of their experience.

Evaluating your experience

Has this experience helped to meet your educational goals? How has this activity met your curriculum goals? An evaluation form has been provided for you to provide valuable feedback to the museum so that we may enhance our educational activities in the future.

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