June is National Fruit and Vegetable Month, providing an opportunity for daycare educators to engage children in fun and educational activities centered around fruits and vegetables. Suggested activities include making smoothies, veggie stamping, gardening, modifying songs with fruit and vegetable themes, and reading related storybooks. It's important to consider food allergies and dietary restrictions before introducing new foods in these activities.

1. Nutrition Activities for Daycare
June is National Fruit and Vegetable Month.
What better way to introduce the children in your daycare to a variety of fruits and vegetables than
through fun and educational themed activities involving art, music, science, and reading.
Consider adding these activities to your daycare curriculum.
Try using a single fruit or vegetable as part of an alphabet (letter) lesson plan. For example: begin
with introducing the letter W and create a colorful "W is for Watermelon" poster. Then plan the rest
of the day's activities around a watermelon theme.
Get creative and search the internet for kid friendly fruit and vegetable related activities. For
example, Watermelon.org, the National Watermelon Promotion Board, provides a wealth of
watermelon songs, recipes, and games.
Dole 5 A Day also has an outstanding, free kid's cookbook and fun activities to get you started on
fruit and/or vegetable daycare themes for June.
Consider these ideas for National Fruit and Vegetable Month:
Art and Cooking:
Fruity smoothies
Children can participate in making a simple fruit smoothie. Let the children help make their
individual smoothies by letting them add their favorite fruit to the blender.
For a simple, delicious and healthy smoothie, add one banana (peeled and cut into chunks), one cup
nonfat yogurt (try vanilla), and one cup orange juice to a clean blender and blend until smooth.
Veggie stampers:
Take a variety of fresh, firm vegetables (potatoes, carrots, radishes, bell peppers, etc.) and cut them
into interesting shapes. Cover the table with newspaper and put paint out in containers. Let the
children dip the veggies into the paint and stamp them on a large white piece of construction paper.
Science
A great way to introduce children to science is through gardening. Let them grow fruits or veggies
from seeds. Take an empty egg carton and using a spoon, let the children fill each egg cup with soil.
Then plant two seeds in each egg cup and water each cup with a teaspoon of water.
Lettuce, radishes, peas, and apple seeds are usually easy to grow, but you may want to ask your
local nursery for other easy-to-grow seeds specific to your area. Let the children take turns watering
the plants and monitor their progress daily.

2. Music:
Take the children's favorite songs and modify them using fruit and vegetable themes:
Do You Eat Your Vegetables? (Sung to the tune of "Muffin Man")
Oh do you eat your vegetables, vegetables, vegetables?
Oh, do you eat your vegetables
Each and every day?
Oh, yes we eat our vegetables, vegetables, vegetables,
Oh yes we eat our vegetables
Each and every day!
Ask each child in turn to name a vegetable then replace the child's name and the vegetable he or she
has chosen:
Oh Sally eats broccoli, broccoli, broccoli
Oh Sally eats broccoli ...each and every day!
Storytime:
Eating the Alphabet by Lois Ehlert (2006, ISBN: 015201036X) introduces fruits and vegetables from
around the world along with upper and lowercase letters.
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric homelandimprovements.com Carle, (1994, ISBN: 0399226907)
features a hungry little caterpillar eats his way through a variety of vivid, colorful food.
Mr. Putter & Tabby Pick the Pears by Cynthia Rylant and Arthur Howard (Illustrator) (1995, ISBN:
0152002464) shows how Mr. Putter and his cat Tabby find a creative way to pick pears to make pear
jelly. This book is appropriate for children ages 6-8.
Other suggestions:
Hide toy vegetables in a sand box or in the sensory table and let the children dig them up.
Bring in fresh fruits and vegetables and let children practice sorting them into pairs.
Take the children on a trip to a farmers market or a produce store. Let the children smell, touch, and
sample fruit from around the world.
Always remember to check with parents for food allergies or dietary restrictions before introducing
new foods. For more information about group daycare, please see my article Group Daycare.

3. http://suite101.com/nutrition-activities-for-daycare-a22370