Using All Kinds of Fruits and Vegetables
Put up the colorful poster - All Kinds of Fruits and Vegetables - at children's eye level and let your investigations into new and familiar fruits and vegetables begin. You can use the poster in multiple ways to reinforce the key message that eating a variety of fruits and vegetables is important for good health. And discovering fruits and vegetables of different sizes, shapes, and colors is fun!
Talk About It
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Display the poster for a few days to give children time to look at it on their own. |
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Gather the group around the poster to talk about what they see. Make this a wide-ranging discussion, drawing on children's own experiences and following their lead. Invite children to name the fruits and vegetables they recognize. Point to each fruit or vegetable as it's named and discuss its appearance. Encourage children to describe its features, such as crunchiness or sweet taste. |
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Discuss how a fruit or a vegetable is served, such as in a salad. Talk about different ways that some fruits and vegetables are eaten, such as fresh, as juice, as sauce, or in pies. |
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Focus on fruits and vegetables that are new to children and identify them. For example, if papaya is unfamiliar, have one on hand. Cut it open to see the seeds inside. Offer small, bite-size pieces of papaya so that children who want to can try it. Repeat with other new fruits and vegetables. |
Sort by Size... and More
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Provide cutouts of fruits and vegetables, or use picture cards. Invite children to |
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take turns adding big, medium-size, and small fruits and vegetables to the poster. Or have children compare actual fruits and vegetables or realistic plastic models for size. As they sort, talk about portion sizes. Would one pea feed your group? One strawberry? How about one watermelon? Point out to children that we get more of some fruits and vegetables on our plates because they are smaller. |
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Invite children to think of other ways to sort fruits and vegetables. Possibilities are by color, shape, and texture (loud/crunchy or quiet/soft). |
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Use the poster's alphabet border to reinforce beginning letter and sound skills. Invite children to name as many fruits and vegetables as they can that begin with A (asparagus, avocado, apple), and so on through the alphabet. You might write their lists on experience-chart paper, illustrate each word, and display around the room. |

Using "Where Do Fruits and Vegetables Grow?"
As children wait eagerly for their salad fixings to sprout, use the "Where Do Fruits and Vegetables Grow?" PDF to introduce them to the different ways that fruits and vegetables grow. Invite children to name what they see in the five pictures on the card: carrots under the ground (just like their radishes), lettuce on the ground (like the lettuce they're growing), zucchini squash on a vine, blueberries on a bush, and papaya on a tree. Encourage children to share their own experiences with these fruits and vegetables or others growing in or under the ground and on vines, bushes, and trees. Discuss what's similar about how all these plants grow. (They all need soil, water, air, and sunshine.) Using picture cards or the poster images, talk about where children think other specific fruits and vegetables grow.
Using "Build a Butterfly Salad"
Children are often more willing to try foods they've had a hand in making, so plan cooking experiences using fruits and vegetables. For a spring salad that butterfly enthusiasts are sure to enjoy, introduce the "Build a Butterfly Salad" PDF. Review the five pictures with children and point out that each explains a step in creating their edible butterfly.
To prepare, first ask children to wash their hands. They can help wash the fresh vegetables (use lettuce from your own garden, if possible). An adult will need to cut the celery into sticks for the insect body and red peppers into strips for antennae. Use pineapple canned in its own juices. Set out the raisins and low-fat yogurt, and you're ready to start.
Substitute any fruits and vegetables children prefer. Just as there are different kinds of butterflies, children can try many versions of butterfly salad. Enlist their help in thinking of alternatives. For example, an all-fruit butterfly might be made with cottage cheese as the base, slices of kiwi arranged to look like wings, a row of blueberries to form the body, and two apple slices for antennae.
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