Cherries and Valentines

So last week we ended our Michigan unit study.
We studied Cherries since the "Cherry Capitol of the World" is right here in the mitten state!
It was fun learning about Cherries and there were some facts that I hadn't known.

Like...

• There are about 7,000 cherries on an average tart cherry tree. It takes about 250 tart cherries to make a cherry pie, so the average tree produces enough cherries for 28 pies. 
• Rick "'Pellet Gun" Krause of Arizona has won the International Cherry Pit Spitting Championship 12 times since 1980. 
• The record for picking the most cherries by hand in one day was set in 1958, by 17-year-old Harold Robertson, who picked 1,225 pounds of cherries in one 12-hour period.
• The average American eats about a pound of tart cherries a year!
• Maraschino Cherries are made when sweet cherries are bleached in a brine solution of one percent sulfur dioxide and one-half percent unslaked lime for four to six weeks to remove most of the color. After that, they are pitted and bleached again with sodium chlorite. Then they are soaked in fresh water for a couple of days before sugar, red dyes, and an almond flavoring are added. 
• A Presbyterian missionary named Peter Dougherty first had the idea to plant cherry trees in the Traverse City area in 1852. Everyone told him that his cherries could not be grown so far north... well, how wrong were they?

Anyway... we made a cherry fact book after learning about cherries and watching a video how on how Maraschino cherries were made.

I let them use glitter and I really think they look more like apples then cherries but, oh well. lol

Here are a couple pics of the inside.

Anna remembered the fact about one tree making 28 pies... she drew a picture of that...

And one of the boys (is it sad I can't remember) made a picture of the 

cherry pit spitter.. (they found that amusing)

Here they are watching their video..

The girls were festive in their cherry dress and shirt

*these are crumby cell phone pics*

This week is the 10 commandments and there aren't many crafts in the way of this study but we do have one planned.

Today tho after school we made Conversation Hearts for our front window.

My mom gave my kids a box recently and for whatever reason they were REALLY into them so..

here are ours.

The kids got "creative" with the hearts with "send money" and "cry baby" 

but they had fun and that is all that matters right?