Bob for Prize Apples

Here's a quick quiz: What can apples do that pears and plums can't? Float. It's a strange claim to fame, and yet it certainly makes apples the most popular fruit of the bunch at Halloween parties. Here's a fun variation on the basic rules of bobbing.

MATERIALS
About 10 apples
Knife
Foil-covered chocolate coin
Big tub of water

HOW IT'S DONE:
Wash all the apples and mark one with a special carving, or slice deeply with a knife (a parent's job) and insert a foil-covered chocolate coin high into the slit. Then set the apples in the tub of water. To play, bobbers take turns trying to latch onto an apple with their teeth. The player who grabs onto the prize apple wins.

CORE CURRICULUM "As American as apple pie"? Maybe not. History books place the apple pie as far back as 14th-century England.