Every few days, a newspaper bound in a long rubber band makes its way onto our porch. If it’s not already soaked through with early morning rain, I half-heartedly flip through the stories and flyers {that make up the majority of the paper} so I feel a tiny bit less guilty about recycling it almost immediately. This morning, however, when we found a bone dry paper on our porch, we decided to put it to use.
Gracen’s been helping me wash our produce and sort it into the different refrigerator sections for a long while now and often asks if things are fruits or vegetables, so I decided we’d use our grocery store flyers to play a little fruit and veggie sorting game.
We gathered up a small piece of poster board, a ruler, some glue, and some scissors to start. I drew a quick T chart while explaining that one ‘box’ would be for all the fruit pictures we found and the other would be for the veggies. Grae shared with me one thing that she was certain was a fruit (an apple) and one thing she was certain was a vegetable (a potato) and we added little picture clues at the top next to the column headings.
Next we had a little chat about how we know if something is a fruit or vegetable… While it’s kind of a complex subject filled with talk of flowers, ovaries, and plant accessory parts, I subscribe to the fruits have seeds theory when teaching kids (true story – avocados, peppers, and cucumbers are all fruits!) It’s not a perfect rule because wee ones often don’t realize that things like bananas and blueberries have seeds, but it works for most things.
After adding a few little seeds next to our fruit heading, I began cutting pictures out of the flyers. I’d pass one to Grae, ask her what it was, whether or not it had seeds, and if she thought it was a fruit or veggie, and she’d paste it in the correct box.
After a couple of times, she took things into her own hands… I’d pass her a picture and she’d say, “Dis is lettuce. It no have seeds, so it’s a vegetable!”
When we’d used up all of the flyer photos, she took a minute to admire her project. She was a very proud girl and immediately went to hang her poster on the fridge.
Later on in the day, after a big produce shop, Grae was helping me lay all of the freshly washed produce on the butcher block to dry. Right away, I could see that she was putting all of the fruits on one side and the veggies on the other, so I grabbed a wooden spoon to act as a divider {and she grabbed her poster to add to the display}. Instantly we had a real life sorting game.
These are her piles when she decided she was done playing. The Chinese eggplant on the right is what she chose this time for our weekly fruit/veggie investigation, and though she’s not sure, her prediction is that it is a vegetable. We’ll have to see when we open it up! ☺
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After our 
Once we cut it in half, she told me that it was ‘veeeeeeery’ seedy, that the seeds could be eaten just like those of the kiwi, and that it felt wet. 
We peeled the skin off and Miss G got straight to the taste test portion of her investigation. The conclusion? It tasted like strawberries (though I think she often uses “strawberries” because she associates them with tasting and smelling good…she also tells me that her toes smell like strawberries!)
It’s amazing how quickly kids pick things up, isn’t it? We’ve only done this once before and she is already using her sense of sight, smell, taste, and touch to make conclusions about a new fruit. I love this little weekly tradition we have going on and I’m excited to see what she chooses next week.
One of the fun little things I’ve tried to keep up is having Gracen pick a new fruit or vegetable to take home and investigate during our weekly shopping trips. Though she seriously contemplated a papaya, she ended up selecting this particular dragon fruit today. This is the conversation that ensued while browsing the other aisles…
Yesterday, while shopping for fresh produce, Miss G asked if we could take home a starfruit. It got me thinking. I didn’t know if Grae had ever even seen a starfruit, let alone tasted one. I said sure, let her select the one she wanted, and carry it throughout the store for the remainder of our trip.
Today, after nap time, we pulled it out to investigate. We started by smelling it…
Then moved on to running our fingers over it to feel its texture…
And then to gently pinching it to see how soft or hard it was.
When we were done investigating the outside of the fruit, we decided to cut it open.
Of course the first thing Miss G wanted to do was taste it. This particular starfruit was still a little too green, but you can’t investigate a fun new fruit without tasting it!
Starfruit got her seal of approval, and while munching away, Grae was pleased to discover seeds inside the fruit.
This was such a fun and easy little activity that I think I’m going to let Grae choose one new item during our produce shopping trip each week. While we eat a TON of produce, there are still many fruits and veggies we haven’t tried (especially in our local market’s extensive Asian section). It’ll be fun to branch out a little bit and try new things, and I truly believe that when kids are involved in the shopping and cooking aspects of food, they’re much more open-minded about tasting their selections and creations.