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Craft Connection Lesson Overview
A Rainbow of Flavors
This activity will expose children to a variety of fruits and vegetables, reinforce the concept of colors and teach children that eating colorful fruits and vegetables is good for their bodies. Children will paint or draw a rainbow on paper, find pictures of colorful fruits and vegetables, and glue the pictures on the corresponding rainbow color. The children will have the opportunity to taste colorful fruits and/or vegetables at the conclusion of the craft activity.
Key Concepts
● Fruits and vegetables come in many different colors. ● Eating a variety of colorful fruits and vegetables is good for our body. ● Fruits and vegetables are a tasty and healthy choice for snack time.
National Food Service Management Institute The University of Mississippi
Materials Needed To teach the lesson: ● Pictures of colorful fruits and vegetables from gardening catalogs, grocery flyers, magazines, and other resources that can be cut apart ● White paper, 8 1/2” X 11” or larger, one sheet per child ● Blunt, child-safe scissors ● Child-safe glue or glue sticks ● Child-safe paints, crayons, markers, or colored pencils, and fruit and vegetable models
For the snack: ● A snack tray with a variety of fruits and/or vegetables for the children to sample: Fruit Ideas: melon slices, strawberries, blueberries, banana slices, orange wedges, apple slices, pineapple tidbits, kiwi slices, peach, or nectarine chunks Vegetable Ideas: pea pods, grape tomatoes (cut in half lengthwise), small broccoli and cauliflower florets, blue snap beans, asparagus chunks, celery sticks, carrot strips ● One of the following: Lowfat fruit flavored yogurt (at least 2 ounces per child) to use as a fruit dip Refried beans or hummus (at least 1/4 cup per child) to use as a vegetable dip
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Craft Connection
A Rainbow of Flavors, continued
Lesson Background
One way to ensure that we receive all needed nutrients is to choose a variety of colorful fruits and vegetables. While all fruits and vegetables contribute nutrients and fiber to the diet, some fruits and vegetables are especially rich in nutrients and healthful plant chemicals, known as phytochemicals. By mixing up our choices and choosing richly colored produce, we can improve the quality of our diets.
Examples: Dark salad greens have more nutrients than light green iceberg lettuce, dark orange squash, carrots, sweet potatoes, and melons are rich in vitamin A, and deep red peppers and dark green broccoli are rich sources of vitamin C.
Teach the Lesson
● Ask the children what colors are found in a rainbow? (possible answers: red, green, blue, purple, orange, yellow, and white) ● Explain that fruits and vegetables come in all the colors of the rainbow. By eating many different colors, our bodies stay healthy and keep growing when we are young. ● Introduce the craft activity. Explain that the children will create a “rainbow of flavors” by drawing or painting a rainbow and decorating the rainbow with colorful pictures of fruits and vegetables. ● Put craft supplies on a table where all children can easily reach them, including sheets of paper, blunt scissors, garden catalogs and/or grocery flyers, glue or glue sticks, and paint, crayons, or colored pencils. ● If desired, trace or sketch a rainbow for the children on their paper. Ask them to color each stripe a different color. Next, ask them to find fruit or vegetable pictures in different colors, cut or tear them out, and glue them on the rainbow stripe that matches that color. You may want to continue this craft activity over several days (e.g. On Monday, let's find orange foods, on Tuesday let's look for green and blue foods.) ● Be sure to send the child's rainbow home at the end of the week. Encourage parents to display it in the kitchen, where it will be a reminder to choose more fruits and vegetables. ● To reinforce lesson concepts, serve colorful fruits or vegetables at snack time. 2
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Snack Time
Craft Connection
A Rainbow of Flavors, continued
● Clean and sanitize the table where the children will eat snack. Make sure all children wash hands with warm water and soap for at least 20 seconds. ● To reinforce the concepts of the lesson, offer the children a snack tray with a variety of fruits and/or vegetables. ● To ensure the snack is reimbursable, serve the fruit tray with yogurt. If you choose vegetables, serve with a dip such as refried beans or hummus.
CACFP Food Components
Offer at least 1/2 cup cut-up fruit for children ages 3–5 and 3/4 cup fruit for children ages 6–12. Offering 2 ounces of yogurt for dipping (4 ounces for ages 6–12) will result in a reimbursable snack. For the vegetable option, offer at least 1/2 cup vegetables. Two tablespoons of refried beans or hummus counts as a meat alternate serving for children ages 3–5. Children ages 6–12 should be offered 1/4 cup refried beans or hummus and 3/4 cup vegetables.
Going Further
Children: ● Books to Read McMillan, B. (1988). Growing colors. Mulberry Books. Horacek, P. (2001). Strawberries are red. Candlewick Press. ● Music for Movement Smart &Tasty 2: Good Food Tunes for Kids. (2005). A rainbow on my plate. Abridge Club Entertainment. ● Color Me Hungry Flash game with Grover and Cookie Monster. Access at http://pbskids.org Leader: ● For more information on the benefits of eating colorful fruits and vegetables, check out the following Web sites: www.dole5aday.com www.hsph.harvard.edu www.fruitsandveggiesmatter.gov
This project has been funded at least in part with Federal funds from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Service through a grant agreement with The University of Mississippi. The contents of this publication do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, nor does mention of trade names, commercial products, or organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. Government. The University of Mississippi is an EEO/AA/Title VI/Title IX/Section 504/ADA/ADEA Employer.
For more information, contact NFSMI at 800-321-3054 or www.nfsmi.org. 3
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