Vegetables are not just what’s for dinner. The classification of fruits and vegetables has always interested me, because it is not cut and dry. The scientific definition and what is commonly used are quite different. This gray area provides the perfect opportunity to have kids exercise their scientific mind.
I have done this activity with many different age levels (kindergarten, 3rd grade, and 6th grade), so I knew even at the preschool level it would both fun and thought-provoking. AT the higher levels, the kids are more active in cutting apart the fruit and vegetables, I use more challenging, exotic samples, and they work to create an operational definition.
The boys really took their “work” seriously. As you can see in looking at the boys’ facial expressions as they pondered their decisions.
But, for Simon, my voracious fruit eater, the temptation was too great. It didn’t take long for him to dig in.
And, Peter is getting less and less happy about activities being conducted on the table out of his reach. After snapping this picture, I let him crawl across the table and investigate the produce as well. I couldn’t get a photo of that for obvious safety reasons.
The activity wasn’t messy enough for our house, so I broke out the tempera paint for some vegetable prints.
Peter was rewarded for his patience.
And we even had a visit from the vacuum truck in the middle of our fun, which was cool being that it is V week and all. However, it would have been nice if it arrived after we had a chance to wash our hands.
ucanpreschool 