Garden: fruits & vegetables

Well, we are into our second week of Children's Month at Doodles & Doilies. I hope you are all getting great ideas and learning experiences so you can have a great summer with your children. I am out of town this week and away from all of my resources so I could use your help in getting ideas for activities, crafts, recipes, science projects, books, songs, etc. Don't be shy; email me at doodlesanddoilies(at)gmail(dot)com!

DISCUSS & LEARN:

*Why do some food grow above ground and other grow underneath the ground?

*Healthy food choices

ACTIVITIES:

*Food stamps: cut fruits & vegetables in half. Dip into paint and press them onto paper.

*Plant: plant seeds or starts in pots or your garden. Water & weed until ready to harvest. Make dinner or lunch using your home grown food.

*Prepare food: peel carrots & potatoes with peeler, boil potatoes & mash with masher, crack nuts with nut crackers,

*Food tasting: prepare lots of different kinds of food (even different ways). Everyone samples the food (don't force children to eat something they don't want to) and then on a graph chart what foods everyone like/dislikes. Try brocolli (raw/steamed), carrots (raw, steamed), peas, corn (on the cob/off), lettuce (iceburg, red leaf, etc.), cauliflower (raw, steamed), tomatoes (cherry, grape, stewed, raw, sauce, paste), pumpkin (seeds, pulp), radish, onion (yellow, white, red), squash, zucchini (raw, bread), cucumber, potatoes (mashed, baked, fries, tater tots, boiled), raspberries, strawberries, grapes (green, red, purple, juice), oranges (raw, juice, pulp), lemons (raw, lemonade), limes (raw, limeade), pineapple, watermelon, cantaloupe, honeydew, peach, nectarine, plum, banana (raw, bread), etc.

MAKE:

*Veggie man: cut out shapes of vegetables on colored paper. For example: cabbage (wavy circle), pea pods, broccoli, cherry tomatoes, celery sticks, etc. Using the colored shapes glue them together making a vegetable man.

*Food puppets: using 3-D objects make puppets.

Tennis ball (paint): tomato, pea, purple grape, orange, apple, etc. If you want cut a slit in the side to make a mouth; when you squeeze the sides it will open the mouth so you have a talking puppet.

Sock: corn stalk, carrot, celery, rhubarb

BOOKS:

Growing Vegetable Soup by Lois Ehlert

The Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss

The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear by Audrey Wood

Pumpkin, Pumpkin by Jeanne Titherington

SONGS:

*VEGETABLE

(make vegetable props (paper/flannel) to go with the song)

I'm a tomato, red and round

Red and round, red and round

I'm a tomato red and round

Seated in a group

I'm a corn stalk, tall and straight

Tall and straight, tall and straight

I'm a corn stalk, tall and straight

And I taste just great

I'm a carrot, long and orange

Long and orange, long and orange

I'm a carrot long and orange

Growing under ground

We are peas in a pod

In a pod, in a pod

We are peas in a pod

Cozy as can be

I'm a pumpkin, round and fat

Round and fat, round and fat

I'm a pumpkin round and fat

In a pumpkin patch.

*APPLES AND BANANAS

I like to eat, eat, eat apples and bananas

I like to eat, eat, eat apples and bananas

I like to ate, ate, ate ay-ples and ba-nay-nays

I like to ate, ate, ate ay-ples and ba-nay-nays

I like to eat, eat, eat ee-ples and bee-nee-nees

I like to eat, eat, eat ee-ples and bee-nee-nees

I like to ite, ite, ite i-ples and by-ny-nys

I like to ite, ite, ite i-ples and by-ny-nys

I like to ote, ote, ote oh-ples and bo-no-nos

I like to ote, ote, ote oh-ples and bo-no-nos

I like to oot, oot, oot oo-ples and boo-noo-noos

I like to oot, oot, oot oo-ples and boo-noo-noo

*PETER PETER PUMPKIN EATER

Peter, Peter, pumpkin-eater,

Had a wife and couldn't keep her;

He put her in a pumpkin shell,

And there he kept her very well

*WAY UP HIGH IN THE APPLE TREE

Way up high in the apple tree,

Two red apples looked down at me.

I shook the tree as hard as I could,

And down fell the apples

Mmm were they good!

RECIPES:

Vegetable stew: check out a recipe here

Fruit pizza: check out a recipe here

Vegetable pizza: check out a recipe here

*Salsa:

3 15 oz. cans of black beans, drained

1/3 c. garlic red wine vinegar

1/3 c. olive oil

1 1/2 tsp. minced garlic

3/4 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. pepper

2 15 oz. cans of tomatoes

1 red onion

1 green pepper

1 can corn, drained

4 avocados, chopped

Mix together vinegar, oil, garlic, salt & pepper in a large bowl Add remaining ingredients, and stir to coat. Serve with tortilla chips.

Fruit salad: mix your desired fruits with cool whip

Green salad: mix lettuce with your desired vegetables

Potato salad: click here to view a recipe

Tomato & cucumber salad: cut on medium tomato into chunks and 1/2 a cucumber into chucks. Add a little bit of mayonnaise. Stir. Serve cool. My husband learned this recipe when he was in Russia.