Songs, Poems, &
Fingerplays
Vegetable Colors
There are many colored vegetables-
They are good for you.
Carrots are orange, I'll l eat a few,
Beans are green, I'll eat them too.
*Keep repeating and adding
different veggies.
Activities
Literacy
: Favorites:
Ask the kids to name some of their favorite fruits and veggies and write
them on chart paper. Talk about the difference between fruits and
veggies.... fruits have seeds. Where do they grow? Where do
we get them? (Have some real ones cut in half, ask the kids
"fruit or veggie?" then show them the center to see what it
is.... then use these for prints, they work much better is you have let
them dry a bit any way.)
Make a Class Book:
"Our Favorite Vegetables." I have each child illustrate a
page and tell what their favorite vegetable is. You could do this
with fruit too. We do this after reading Growing Vegetable Soup
by Lois Elhert, and then we make a big batch of friendship soup that
everyone has helped make and brought their favorite veggie for.
Math & Number Concepts
Fruit & Veggie Count: Have some smaller things out for counting,
like cherry tomatoes, or let the kids count seeds in things like apples,
pumpkins, and oranges. Ask them to "estimate" how many seeds
they will find in an apple, an orange, etc. Make a graph of their findings
and compare the information they have discovered.
Counting Buckets: I made a fun fruit counting game using
some small pails I found at a department store and fruit counters. I
labeled them with numbers and the kids have fun counting the correct
number of fruit's into the buckets.
Art
Fruit and Veggie Print Placemats:
Supplies: A variety of fruits and veggies cut in half.
We used green peppers, apples (cut one length wide and one through the
center so you get the apple shape and the "star"), carrots,
broccoli, pears, celery, **star fruit! (way cool), an orange, a
lemon, and potatoes. Colored construction paper, clear contact paper
or laminate. Opt. cut edges of construction paper with a fancy
cutting scissors.
Directions: Let the kids "stamp" fruit and veggie prints
on the construction paper. Older kids might find it fun to make
different patters, or create a fruit and veggie person... dog... anything!
When dry cover with clear contact paper or laminate for use as a place
mat!
Fruit and Veggie Collages:
Supplies: Magazines, construction paper, glue scissors.
Directions: Let kids cut out pictures of fruits and veggies, and
glue to construction paper for a fruit and veggie collage!
Creative Food Art: Have out a
variety of fruits and veggies for painting with, or cut pictures on the
end of a potato for stamping with.
Craft Activity
Grape Magnets
Supplies: Purple tissue paper, small stick, hot glue (adults use
only), white glue, green chenille stick, magnet.
Directions: Have the kids roll up the tissue paper into little
balls and glue together into a grape bunch shape. Glue it to the
magnet for them, then let them stick on a stick for a stem and a green
chenille stick curled up for the vine. You may have to reinforce it
with hot glue.
Opt.: Add a little paper strip to it that says "Bearing
fruits of the spirit."
Dramatic Play
Farm Market
Supplies: Lots of plastic fruits and vegetables, paper bags,
baskets, etc. A pretend or real cash register, play money, rebus
grocery lists, other items that would be fun are a grocery cart, apron for
the clerk, store signs like a chalk board, etc.
Directions: Set up a pretend farm market, set up one table
for fruits and one for veggies. Have one child be the clerk, and the
others have to be shoppers. Give the shoppers a list and they need
to purchase the items on their list. After they find their items
they can pay the clerk. Have them separate and put back the foods
when they are done and let a different child be the clerk, give them
different lists and let them do it again.
Literacy
:Supply
the children with plenty of paper and pencils for writing lists. Give
them small pieces of poster board or small chalk boards to make signs
for the Farm Market. Hang colorful shopping ads in the area from your
local grocery or farm market for the children to look at and
"read".
Music & Movement
Vegetable Soup by
Wendt Rose Baldinger: cut out pictures of the different vegetables from
this song and pass them out to the children. Let them throw their
vegetable into a big pot in the middle of the circle when it comes up in
the song.
Going to the Market
by Greg & Steve: In this song have children add the pictures of the
different vegetables to a big brown grocery bag in the middle of the
circle.
Apple/Orange Toss:
Let the children take turns trying to toss an apple or an orange
into a basket.
Science &
Discovery
Grow a Potato Head: Provide each
child with a potato that has had the top cut off. Let them glue on
buttons for eyes and a pom-pom for a nose, maybe some yarn for a mouth..
what ever you have available. After it is dry give the children some
grass seeds to sprinkle on the top of the head. The seeds will
sprout and Mr. Potato head will look like he grew hair. (You may
wish to store them in a plastic container that has a lid so that they do
not dry out)
Sensory Activities:
Fruity Play Dough: Add some
fruity smelling Cool Aid mix to your homemade play dough when you make it!
It will smell so good! Set out some fruit and vegetable cookie
cutters to go with it!
Fruit & Veggie Taste Tests:
Provide the children with a variety of fruits and vegetables to sample,
encourage them to smell them touch them and taste them and describe the
qualities of each one.
Veggie Sorting: Collect a
variety of fruit and vegetable pictures and sort by color, size shape,
fruit or veggie, etc.
Veggies and Fruits Color Sort :
Give the children colored homemade baskets to sort vegetable & fruit
pictures into. *Use two paper plates, cut them in half, staple two
halves together with tops facing each other, then cut a handle from one of
the extra halves and staple to the top of the basket. Paint or color
them different colors. Have the kids fill the baskets with the
correct color fruits and veggies. (This could easily be made into an
interactive bulletin board)
Apple/Pumpkin Sequence Cards: Let
the kids practice ordering sequence cards of an apple tree, or a pumpkin,
etc. You can purchase these in school supply stores or make your own
using index cards.
Let the children examine cut
open fruits and vegetables, like apples, oranges, squash, peaches. As they
examine them ask open ended questions like... What is in them? How
are they the same? How are they different?
Blocks & Building
Add trucks and crates and
plastic fruits and vegetables so the children can use them to role play
the idea of transporting fruits and vegetables. In the fall there
are often many trucks on the roads carrying potatoes.
Puzzles, Games &
Manipulatives
Apple Lacing Cards:
Make your own, cut apple shapes from construction paper, laminate and
punch holes around for a lacing card. (You could make all kind of fruit
& vegetable lacing cards.)
Fruit Puzzles:
Make your own or purchase them.
Computers
Cooking
Veggie People: Let the kids
build edible veggie people with carrots, radishes, celery, broccoli, etc.
Give them PNB to hold the body parts together.
Stone Soup: Have the children
each bring a vegetable from home and cook up a big pot of soup using their
vegetables. They will obviously need an adult to do the cooking, but
they should be able to wash and cut their own vegetables some what.
Give everyone a turn to stir the soup as it cooks. (A great activity to
use along with the story Stone Soup by Maurice Sendak)
Friendship Vegetable Soup: Have
everyone bring in a veggie to cut up and add to the soup.
Star Fruit! It is so fun and the kids
love it!
Veggies & Dip
Fresh Fruit
Bulletin Boards
Other Resources
Field Trip Ideas:
Farm Market Visit: Visit a local farm
market to see what they are like. Let the kids buy some items to try
at like... watermelon, squash, maybe some tomatoes?