Overview

This lesson focuses on helping kids spend time thinking about fruits and their various spellings, including using the alphabet to recall various fruits. If a child recalls the name of an unusual fruit, the class can research the origins and country where that fruit is more common.

 

Objectives

• Students will be able to recall the names of fruits.
• Students will try to make educated guesses on a) which letter of the alphabet has the greatest number of fruits that begin with it, and b) which fruit is the most popular in all of North America.

 

Materials

• Worksheet with each letter of the alphabet followed by space to write down the names of fruits
• A pencil

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Teacher Talking Points

There is no food on this planet other than whole fruit that contains, on average, 80% water. Eating whole fruits each day helps to ensure that we get water in addition to many vitamins, minerals, and fiber. People tend to like fruits more than vegetables. Why? Probably due to the fact that fruits are naturally sweeter and humans are born naturally liking sweet tastes. Fruits are much better snacks than candies and most fruits come in their very own natural snack-like packaging. All that's usually required is that we peel it (bananas, oranges), slice it (watermelon, cantaloupe), or wash it (apples, blueberries). Ask how many students brought fruit in their lunch today or ate it after school yesterday.

 

Activity

Review the talking points with the students and asks them to make a list of all of the fruits they know using the alphabet worksheet included. Who can write down the most? Which letter has the most fruits that begin with it? (Answer : The letter "P"). Which fruit is the most popular fruit in all of North America? (Answer: Bananas are the most popular fruit in North America). If there are students from other countries or students that know of a unique fruit that other children have never seen or heard of before, encourage greater exploration of the fruit (e.g., History/Geography: What country does it come from?) You might also use the names of fruits in Spelling, English or Language Arts examples (e.g., nouns, adjectives, sentence structure, or spelling).

 

Additional Resource

Dole's SuperKids website is jam-packed with games, quizzes, teacher activities, tips, food facts, recipes and healthy snack ideas. See http://www.dole.com/#/superkids/