The Best Apple Books for Preschoolers to Read This Fall

Here are our favorite books about apples for preschoolers to read this fall.  Great for Letter A units or apple unit studies these apple books make excellent read alouds for preschoolers and are perfect for beginning readers, too! 

We recently started to introduce some flexible home school preschool rhythms to our days around here and while it’s officially still summer, back to school season has arrived, which makes me excited for all things Fall.

There is a certain energy that I just love about the Fall and new school year.  Admittedly, both of our boys stay home, so we don’t actually “go” to school, but having worked at the University before becoming a mom, and that fresh out of undergrad/grad school, I have spent many a fall in the hustle and bustle of a new school year.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the summer (mostly), but after months of heat and sun, I am ready to cool things down, pull on my jeans, and start cozying up for a new season.

Our oldest turns 4 this fall, and is an eager learner – soaking in everything he can.  And with a little brother that’s just over 1 and a half, I decided that this fall, we would begin to add in more planned “home school” structure to our days.

Home School Preschool

I plan to share a little more about our decision to home school preschool in this season, but ultimately, I wanted to add some structure that allows me to teach both boys on their level, but still allow them to play and learn together.

To help with this, I recently bought Busy Toddler’s Playing Preschool Year 1 curriculum to provide a play-based, loose guideline for our school time.

It’s got 19 themes or unit studies – each lasting two weeks and fully planned for you.  It really takes all the guess-work out of planning for your preschool home school.

I’m using it as a guide.  We might not do all the units, we might spread some out, or spend less time on others.

But, it has provided me with lots of ideas and a framework for creating plans and unit studies that I was lacking before.  Frankly, it’s encouraging me to actually plan our units rather than getting lost in the black hole that Pinterest can sometimes become when searching for preschool activities.

This post contains affiliate links for your convenience.  If you click through and make purchases from these links, I will earn a commission.  I always recommend checking your local library for books as a great way to enjoy some good reading without spending money!  For more information on affiliate links, feel free to see disclosure.  

Preschool Apple Unit Study

The first unit we’re working on this year is Apples.  Each unit in Playing Preschool has a suggested book list, but since we’re using it as a rough guide, we also spent sometime at our local library and seeing suggestions from other apple unit studies, we’ve compiled our very favorite apple books to share with you today.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll hopefully be sharing some of our apple themed activities, too!

To be fair, there are about a million apple books for preschoolers out there and each list will have different ones.  These are the apple books that we have checked out from the library or have at our home that are getting the most use for our own apple study.  

Ten Red Apples by Pat Hutchins

The repetitive nature of this book make it an excellent read aloud for preschoolers and toddlers alike.  Ten Red Apples follows a farmer whose animals keep munching apples off the tree, while he encourages them to “save one for me!” after each page.

We count the apples down with each page to practice counting and sequencing.

RELATED: Apple Counting Activity for Preschoolers

Apple Picking Day by Candice Ransom

This one is a Step 1 Ready to Read book for emergent readers.  It follows a family’s day at the apple orchard and is full of rhyming words which is great for new readers, and also make it a fun read aloud book.

Ten Apples Up on Top by Dr. Suess

A classic apple book by Dr. Suess, it’s silly and fun with lots of spin off activities you can do with your kids.  Another great way to practice counting, too.

The Apple Pie Tree by Zoe Hall

One of my favorite apple books for preschoolers.  The Apple Pie Tree is a beautiful picture books that follows the apple life cycle through the eyes of two sisters.  Going through all seasons, the sisters watch the apple tree bloom and blossom.  They get to see animals interact with the tree until it’s time to pick the apples for the apple pie.  It also includes an apple pie recipe you can make together!

How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World by Marjorie Priceman

When the market is closed, this book’s main character has to gather the best ingredients for her apple pie by traveling around the world right to the source!  This is a fun book to read along with a world map and is a great way to incorporate geography into your apple unit!

This book was actually recommended to me by a friend who reads it every year with her girls and bake the pie recipe in the back!  They write down each year the date the made the pie and who they shared it with.  What a fun tradition!  And now it’s one of our favorite apple books, too!

Apples and Pumpkins by Anne Rockwell

A classic that we’ve read both in picture book and board book form depending on the ages of our boys when we read it.  Easy read aloud follows a family’s trip to the apple orchard and pumpkin farm.

Apple Farmer Annie by Monica Wellington

This was a new find for us at the library this year and I grabbed it to use for our apple unit.  Follow Apple Farmer Annie as she grows and harvests her apples, making delicious treats to sell with her apples at the market.  The illustrations in this book are bright and beautiful.  We have enjoyed this one a lot this year!

How Do Apples Grow by Jill McDonald

How Do Apples Grow is a part of the Hello, World! series for children.  It’s brightly illustrated pages are full of information about the apple life cycle, and the parts of the apple and apple blossom.  It also covers many different uses for apples.  Lots of opportunities to practice counting, identifying colors, and talking about seasons.  It’s easy enough for my toddler, but full of information for my preschooler to learn as well.

Apples for Everyone by Jill Esbaum

A part of the National Geographic Kids series, Apples for Everyone features real life photos of apples and apple orchards for kids to enjoy.  Great for learning more about apples.  For older preschoolers, especially and a fun way to get a glimpse of apples in the real world.

What are Your Favorite Apple Books for Preschoolers?

And now I realize that we probably should have grabbed one more to make an even “10 Favorite Apples Books for Preschoolers” list, but alas.  We only have 9 in our book basket this year.  And considering we have over 50 books currently checked out from our local library, I am totally okay with that.

If you are planning an apple unit study, or just looking for some fall themed books for your preschooler this year, these are ones that we have read and are enjoying in our home this year.  All are highly recommended from the boys and me!

And be sure to stay tuned in the coming weeks as I try to share some of the themed activities we’ve been doing around here with these books!

What are your favorite apple books for kids?  My guess is that we’ll be learning about apples again over here and I’d love your suggestions!