1. ASManager2_6.zip Driver
2. G_APPLE1.txt File Contents

G_APPLE1.txt Driver File Contents (ASManager2_6.zip)

Name: <  >
Class: <  >
Date: <  >



Johnny Appleseed, Part 1

Sometimes, the main character of a tall tale is based on a real person who did some great things, although not as great as the tall tale may pretend. In other tall tales, the main character is make-believe.

Below is a list of tall tale characters. Which ones do you believe are, or were, real people? Why do you guess they did, or didn't, really live? Mark the "really lived" characters by typing an X next to their name.

Johnny Appleseed
John Henry
Paul Bunyan
Pecos Bill
Pippi Longstocking

If you guessed that Johnny Appleseed and John Henry probably were real people and not just make-believe, you are correct. We will learn and write about John Henry in the next file. In this activity, we will write about Johnny Appleseed. To learn about him, you may want to read the book Johnny Appleseed by Steven Kellogg.


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Read "A Brief, Only Partly True, Biography Of Johnny Appleseed," which is written below.

A Brief, Only Partly True, Biography of Johnny Appleseed

Johnny Appleseed's real name was John Chapman. He was not born like most people. He actually hatched out of an apple that was lying on the ground. The first thing he did after he hatched was eat that apple. Then he crawled around on the ground eating every apple he could find on that ten acre orchard.

He became famous, because he worked so hard helping pioneers to plant apple trees. He carried thousands of pounds of apple seeds in bags thrown over his shoulder. He gave the seeds to pioneers who were heading west or who had already settled and built their log cabins in western Pennsylvania and Ohio.

Now, scroll back and delete the parts of the story that are tall tales.

Using your imagination, add to the tall tale below. Put your Caps Lock key down so that the ideas and exaggerations that you add will show up clearly.

Begin typing between the angle brackets.

A Different Tall Tale of Johnny Appleseed

Johnny Appleseed hatched out of a <  > apple in April when the apple trees on his parents farm were so full of blossoms that <  >.

The first thing Johnny Appleseed looked at were those beautiful apple blossoms. As soon as he saw them, he reached for them. When he couldn't reach them sitting down, he <  >.

Johnny refused to eat anything for the first three months of his life. His mother brought him <  >, <  >, <  > and <  >, but he kept his mouth shut tight. He just sat there looking at the apple blossoms changing into apples.

Even though Johnny didn't eat, he grew faster than any child around. He grew as fast as <  >. He grew so fast that <  >. By the time he was three months old, he was tall enough to <  >. It was easy for Johnny to pick apples from an apple tree without climbing a ladder, though he always waited until the apples were <  > and ripe.

For his very first meal, he ate all the apples from <  > apple trees. By the time Johnny Appleseed was <  > years old, he had invented apple cider. He would take a <  > apple, hold it over a glass, and squeeze.

Johnny didn't grow to be much taller than most people, but he was much stronger. He was as strong as <  >. He was so much stronger than most people that he could <  >. Maybe that was from eating all of those apples. He could do more work than any man around. He could cut down <  > trees in <  >, and then he'd have that area all planted with new apple trees before <  >.

Johnny Appleseed never stayed after he'd finished planting apple trees. He would visit with the people and tell them how to care for their new trees. Then he'd have his favorite meal: <  > green apples, <  > golden apples, <  > red apples, <  > baked apples, <  > apple pies and <  >.

Then Johnny would take an apple out of his pocket, polish it, pop it in his mouth like a grape and say, "I'd better be on my way. Night is fallin' and I want to finish countin' all the stars in the sky, 'cause every star I count turns into an apple by mornin'."

Everyone would laugh as Johnny Appleseed put his <  > pot on his head which he wore as a hat. Saying goodbye, he'd start off to find new people who needed apple trees.


Name and save this file now. (Press ctrl+S, type a name for the file, and press enter.)


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You can print your tall tale now and refer to it as you work on the second Tall Tale activity that talks about Johnny Appleseed.


end of activity
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