Last Updated on February 12, 2024 by Sheryl Cooper
Inside: Learn about the colors of the rainbow while making this tasty fruit salad with your preschoolers. A fun circle time activity!
Preschoolers can have picky appetites, so we like to focus on healthy eating throughout the year, encouraging them to try new foods.
When I received a copy of “End of the Rainbow Fruit Salad” from author Eluka Moore, I decided to create 3 circle time activities to go along with it.
I love to put together activities from picture books, such as our 10 Rubber Ducks sensory table and our Penguin and Pine Cone winter activity.
These activities bring more life to the books, making them very meaningful with the children.
Rainbow Fruit Salad for Preschoolers
Full disclosure: I was provided a copy of End of the Rainbow Fruit Salad for review. This post contains affiliate links for your convenience.
On the first day, we focused on the colors of each fruit.
I gave each child a color card.
Each time we turned the page and saw a new fruit, the children called out the color of that fruit. The children who had that color card placed it in the center of the circle.
I love using our circle times to teach concepts, and the children enjoyed matching their cards together.
On the second day, we focused on counting 1-10, just as they do in the book.
I found basic clip art for each fruit that is featured in the book, creating the same amount of each fruit: 1 pineapple, 2 papayas, 3 bananas, 4 raspberries, 5 kiwi, 6 clusters of grapes, 7 spoonfuls of cherries, 8 spoonfuls of blueberries and 9 strawberries. I also printed a picture of a bowl.
I placed the bowl in the middle of the circle and gave each child pictures of the fruit. As I read the story, the children placed the pictures of fruit into the bowl.
On the third and final day, we made a real fruit salad. I sent a note home asking each child to bring specific fruit to preschool. As it arrived, we sorted them.
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The preschoolers love showing me the fruit that they brought! This is one of the reasons I often ask for the children to contribute to our cooking activities. I’ve found it to be much more meaningful when they get to bring something from home.
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We assembled this salad during our circle time. I was able to read the story again as we took turns placing our fruit into a big bowl.
We mixed all our fruit together.
I divided the fruit salad so that each of them had a bowl. I have to say that this is the very first healthy snack that we’ve made where almost every child not only ate the entire bowl, but asked for more. (Only one child declined.) As they ate it, they proudly told everyone what fruit they brought.
More about the book “End of the Rainbow Fruit Salad”:
Authors: Eluka Moore, Larry Puzniak and Marianne Welsh
Illustrated by Kristen Gau
Website: Kitchen Club Kids
Concepts taught: Basic counting skills, color recognition, rhymes
I’ve also reviewed their book Garden Safari Vegetable Soup.
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I loved teaching concepts during circle time too. This is a great lesson and I love that they enjoyed the fruit salad at the end. Thanks for this great post.
Thank you, Kate!
What lovely ideas! Circle time is such a great opportunity to encourage kids with things they find challenging!
Thank you, Kate! Yes, I am finding group time is perfect to engage all of the children, especially those that might tend to hold back from participating.
At my setting with my 2-3 year olds we collect all types of colored objects pop them in a basket And then take it in turns to place the object in the correct colour bowl brilliant fun the kids live to do this every morning
That is a fun way to explore colors!
I really like the look of this book. I haven’t spotted it in Aus yet.
I bet the kids loved making their own fruit salad.