84: A Fun 15-Minute Music Lesson About Apples for Your Homeschool Music in Nature Series

🍎 Fall is the perfect time to weave apples into your homeschool lessons—and why not add music to the mix? In this episode of the Music in Our Homeschool Podcast, Gena Mayo brings you a fun and easy 15-minute music lesson all about apples, part of the Music in Nature Series.

Your kids will:

• Learn a playful folk chant with motions ("Away Up High in the Apple Tree")
• Explore a lively World War II swing tune made famous by The Andrews Sisters ("Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree")
• Sing along with the classic Johnny Appleseed folk song ("The Lord’s Been Good to Me")

Along the way, you’ll discover the story of Johnny Appleseed, enjoy rhythm games, and even try some swing dance steps. Best of all, this lesson works for multiple ages, so your whole family can join in together.

This lesson is also part of Gena’s Music Lessons for Holidays and Special Days course, making it easy to celebrate Johnny Appleseed Day (September 26) with music.

👉 Listen now to bring apples, music, and family fun into your homeschool!

Find links to all resources mentioned in this episode here: https://musicinourhomeschool.com/music-lesson-about-apples/ 

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84 A Fun 15-Minute Music Lesson About Apples for Your Homeschool Music in Nature Series

Gena: [00:00:00] Fall is the perfect time to bring apples into your homeschool learning, whether you're reading books about apples, going on a field trip to an apple orchard, or baking a delicious apple pie, why not add a little music to your apple theme? Today, I have a 15-minute music lesson about apples. It's part of our Music and Nature Series. I have some others such as m usic inspired by insects, music inspired by the moon, music inspired by horses, music inspired by evergreen trees. But today we're doing music inspired by apples.

We will introduce your kids to three apple-related songs: a playful folk chant, a lively World War II swing tune, and a sweet song about the American folk hero, Johnny Appleseed. Best of all, it works for multiple ages, so the whole family can join in. Let's get [00:01:00] started.

Who was Johnny Appleseed? Well, Johnny Appleseed was the nickname of John Chapman, born 1774, died 1845. He was a pioneer nursery man from Massachusetts. He spent his life traveling on foot through Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, planting apple nurseries and spreading seeds he collected from cider mills. His unusual lifestyle of simple clothing, sleeping outdoors, and carrying his bag of seeds helped make him a larger-than-life folk hero.

Johnny Appleseed Day is celebrated on September 26th, his birthday, though some also observe it on March 11th to mark the start of planting season. Communities across the U.S. still hold festivals in his honor each fall.

Our first music related to apples [00:02:00] is a chant called Away Up High in the Apple Tree, and it goes like this: Away up high in an apple tree. Two red apples smiled at me. I shook that tree as hard as I could, and down came those apples, And, mmm, they were good.

So you'll want to add some movements to this little chant. Away up high in an apple tree. Lift your hands up high. Two red apples smiled at me. Make your hands and fists, or pretend like you're holding two apples. I shook that tree as hard as I could. You're pretending like you're holding onto the trunk of the tree and shaking it. And down came those apples. Make your hands go down to the ground. And, mmm, they were good. You can pick an apple up from the ground, take a bite, and then rub your tummy.

Another fun thing to do related to the chanting and the rhythms is to say some apple-related words. For the [00:03:00] word apple, it would be two quarter notes like this. If this is your steady beat: apple. And then you'd say red apple, which would be a quarter note into eighth notes, red apple. And then apple pie would be two eighth notes and a quarter note. Apple pie. And yellow apple would be two eighth notes, two eighth notes. Yellow apple. So let me say all four of those.

And by the way, you can get all of this information, the links, the videos, the printables, in the companion blog posts that goes to this episode. Just check the show notes or description for the link.

So here we go. Apple, red apple, apple pie, yellow [00:04:00] apple.

All right, the next part of our music lesson is the song "Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree" (With Anyone Else But Me.)

This is an upbeat World War II swing era song.

This is an This is an upbeat World War II era swing song that was written in 1942 and made famous by The Andrew Sisters. It became a popular tune among soldiers and their sweethearts during World War II. Listen to the recording of the Andrew Sisters singing the song and discuss: What instruments do you hear? Hopefully you heard brass instruments, like horns. What voices do you hear and how do they sound? There are three women singing, and they're singing in close harmonies. How does the rhythm feel? Well, it's a swing beat and it's danceable. And why might this song have been meaningful to soldiers away from home? Listen carefully to the lyrics and then discuss.

Listen to the song [00:05:00] again, and have your kids do a simple side to side swing, swaying to the music. If you have older students, I also linked up a video that teaches some simple swing steps.

And then the third music we'll listen to is the song "The Lord's Been Good to Me." Johnny Appleseed's story was told in the 1948 Disney short Melody Time. The song is often called The Johnny Appleseed Song, or The Lord's Been Good to Me because the opening lines are, oh, the Lord's been good to me, and so I thank the Lord.

Listen to the song and learn some of the lyrics, and then you can sing along with it. Discuss how folklore and songs contribute to keeping history alive. And for older kids, you pair this song with a listening activity of the Aaron Copland music Appalachian Spring, which captures the sound of Frontier America.

So in just [00:06:00] 15 minutes, your kids have explored apples through three very different songs. W e had the folk chant Away Up High in an Apple Tree, the World War II swing song Don't Sit under the Apple Tree, and the folklore song The Lord's Been good to Me.

This kind of seasonal multi-age music lesson is a wonderful way to make music memorable and easy in your homeschool. You might want to check out my online course called Music Lessons for Holidays and Special Days. I just added this brand new lesson to September 26th for Johnny Appleseed Day. I t's so much fun to just pull up any holiday or special day throughout the year and find a music lesson associated with it.

Well, that's it for today's episode. I hope you'll join me next week. And until then, keep the music [00:07:00] alive.

Find links to all resources mentioned in this episode here: https://musicinourhomeschool.com/music-lesson-about-apples/