In the heat of the summer, we enjoyed two fun fruit and veggie focused activities - a trip to the Farmer's Market and berry picking.
In the heat of the summer, we enjoyed two fun fruit and veggie focused activities - a trip to the Farmer's Market and berry picking.
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Songs about Fruits and VeggiesI was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to find fun songs to listen to, dance to, and sing along with that focused on fruits and vegetables. Some of our favorites this week were:
Books about Fruits and VeggiesFruit Sensory BinBack during Farm Week, we did an easy vegetable sensory bin. As a follow up to that activity, we started our fruits and vegetables week off with a fruit sensory bin. This was a very easy activity because it didn't require me to purchase or search for a lot of supplies. I just made sure when I went to the store this week to get a variety of fruits - which really isn't all that abnormal for us. Any fruit could go in a fruit sensory bin - but I included an apple, pear, banana, cantaloupe (I found a small one that T would be able to pick up on his own), a pineapple, a lemon and a lime. In addition to feeling all the fruits, we used them as a vehicle to work on naming each fruit, describing the fruits (colors, texture, size), and counting the fruit. It was lots of fun for T to put these smaller fruits in and out of the bowl. So each time he put them into the bowl we did something different. Sometimes we counted them, sometimes we said their names, sometimes we described their color, or their texture. If you haven't done a vegetable sensory bin, it would be a great activity to do along with a fruit sensory bin this week. It would also be fun to combine them to add even more variety. Older kids would probably enjoy categorizing a big bin of both as either fruits or vegetables! Fruit and Veggie PrintsSome of our fruit was a little damaged during the sensory bin activity. But I wasn't too worried about it because I was already planning to put some of it to another use - fruit and vegetable prints! Essentially - I cut some assorted fruits and veggies in half to create "stamps." We used a carrot, potato, pear, apple, lemon and peach. In retrospect, corn on the cob would have made a fun print, as would starfruit. Really, the possibilities are endless. I mainly chose pieces that were already damaged in our sensory bin or that were on their way out anyway (I tend to over buy potatoes...). I let T choose a color for each fruit/vegetable and I painted the color on. I then handed him the fruit and let him use it as a stamp to make a print on the paper Things got a little crazy at the end since he wanted to use the paintbrush (totally fine by me!). So the painting didn't really have discernible fruit and veggie shapes, but - process over product! - it was a fun activity. Fruit CommuteThe pop up tunnel is always a fun activity in our house. As is taking things out of containers and putting them back in. So I decided to combine the two this week with an activity I've titled "fruit commute." For this activity, I set up our pop up tunnel and placed a bowl of plastic fruit and vegetables on one side and an empty bowl on the other. My toddler worked his way back and forth, moving fruit from one bowl to the other. As he emerged with a new piece of fruit, I named it and identified it's color. He is becoming very verbal, so this was a great way for him to practice some new vocabulary. This activity has a lot of flexibility for customization. Older children could be asked to find a specific fruit or vegetable or be given a description and asked to find an object that meets it (an orange vegetable, for example, and they could search for a carrot). The fruit/veggies could also be sorted by color or categorized into fruit vs vegetable bowls. Colored bowls could be used and children could be asked to sort the fruit/veggies by color into matching bowls. Lots of possibilities! But I kept it simple for my young one.
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AuthorFormer science teacher. Work-at-home mom to a toddler. Attempting to enrich our days with intentional play and exciting experiences to expand a growing little mind. Archives
August 2016
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