Time Travel Tuesday: Johnny Appleseed

Ripe, juicy apples are a sure sign of fall in our area (western NY). What better person to study than Johnny Appleseed?

-A great website for an abridged biography of John Chapman (AKA Johny Appleseed) is here. Another one is here.

-Some great books about Johhny Appleseed are:
Johnny Appleseed by Reeve Lindbergh
Johnny Appleseed by Carol Ottolenghi
Who Was Johnny Appleseed? by Joan Holub
Johnny Appleseed: My Story by David L. Harrison (This is a level-3 reader book)

-After reading the story of Johnny Appleseed, give your child a blank US map and have them draw in rivers, mountains and other natural barriers (or just look at a relief map of the US and locate them). Discuss how they impeded westward expansion and how Johnny Appleseed and others may have gotten past them. Have the kids map out a route (or more than one route) that may have been taken by Johnny Appleseed from Massachusetts to Ohio.

-Here is a coloring page/seek and find picture of Johnny Appleseed that can either be printed out or "colored" on-line.

-A good DVD to watch about Johnny Appleseed is the Disney movie from 1948. Currently, I believe it can only be bought on the American LegendsDVD which also has the stories of Casey Jones, Paul Bunyan and John Henry.