Fruit Preparing and Tasting Session

Aims

To work with a variety of fruit.

To prepare and then taste the fruit.

To be able to express their views about the fruit.

Objectives

To be able to prepare fruits for tasting.

To be able to express their views about what they have tasted.

To develop fine motor skills.

To be able to share and take turns.

Resources

Hand washing facilities, chopping boards, knives, plates, bins / compost, kebabs sticks, plastic cups, paper towels, cloths and t-towels, smoothie machines.

Smoothies – bananas x 20, tinned pears in juice x 2, tinned peaches in juice x 2, strawberries x 2 & 2 pints of milk or spare cartons from the infants milk is fine.

Fruit kebabs - Oranges or Satsuma’s 1 bag, red & green seedless grapes 1 bag each, melon x 1. Plus other fruit that is in season and kebab sticks.

Introduction

Introduce session.

Discuss healthy eating messages –

The balance of good health (see below).
Eating at least 5 portions of fruit and veg every day and how it can be done (see below).
Water – children should be drinking 3-4 glasses of pure water a day and adults should drink 6-8.

If you drink a cup of tea, coffee or fizzy drink you should drink an extra glass of water.

Discuss dehydration (see below).
Physical activity (see below).

Main Session

Discuss rules for the session

–Washing hands and keeping them clean, clear the tables.

–Not touching the electrical items and sharp knives, tin opener.

–Tasting the fruits, having a try to see whether you do like them.

Give each table a group of fruit, knives & chopping boards/plates to cut on. They need a bowl in the middle to put the prepared fruit on.

–Bananas – peel & chop into medium sized chunks.

–Oranges – peel & split into segments.

–Apples & pears – quarter & cut out the core & pips, cut into chunks.

–Melon & pineapple – cut skin off, de-pip, & cut into chunks.

–Strawberries & grapes – take off stalks & wash, cut big strawberries in half.

Place all the prepared fruit onto 1 table & hand out kebab sticks. Discuss the safety issues & you might need to limit the number of strawberries as they are very popular! It is quite nice if the children wait till everyone has made their kebab before the eat it.

Choose some of the softer fruits without the hard skins to put into the smoothies. Banana, melon, kiwi, mango & strawberry all work well in smoothies. Add them to the tinned fruit i.e. banana, melon & tinned peach is good. You can also add the milk as well which helps to make it less thick.

Only put a little bit in the cups for the children to taste and then they can come back for more if they like it. Once they have tasted the smoothie ask them to put their thumbs up or down if they like it/didn’t. Get the children to rinse their cups out before they taste the 2nd smoothie. Repeat the thumbs up for what they think about the smoothie. Which is their favourite smoothie?

End of session.

Get the children to discuss what they have learnt in the session. What they had to do to prepare the fruit and what they thought about. They could also write / draw about their session.

The Balance of Good Health.

How to eat your 5 a day and more!

For breakfast either have a cereal with fruit in it or add them. Chopped banana, strawberries, raspberries etc. This will be your first portion of the day and you won’t need to add extra sugar.
At break time or for a mid-morning snack eat a piece of fruit or carrot or cucumber instead of crisps etc. So you eat one of your portions and cut out the extra sugar, salt and fat in your diet.
For lunch try to have 2 portions of vegetables either with a hot meal or added into a salad or sandwich. You could then have a fruit salad or piece of fruit for your desert. This makes 3 portions.
Mid afternoon have another piece of fruit cutting out the sugar, salt and fat and eating another portion.
For dinner have at least 2 portions of veg and 1 of fruit.
You could have a glass of fruit juice at some point during the day which counts as 1 portion.

Following the above you will have eaten 10 portions. This is excellent, really you should aim to eat more than the 5 portions, and the more you eat the better.

Dehydration

It leads to: -

Headaches, poor concentration, reduced mental performance.
Reduced physical & sporting performance.
Health problems including urine infections, constipation, wetting/soiling problems & bad breath.
Unhealthy skin, hair & nails.

Replace fizzy drinks, coffee & tea with water.
Carry a water bottle with you, use a sports cap to avoid spillages.
When hungry have a drink of water you are probably thirsty not hungry.
Drink regularly throughout the day;do not wait to be thirsty!

Thirst is not a reliable guide to our fluid needs. By the time we feel thirsty dehydration is already well established!

Physical Activity

•At least 1 hour of mild to moderate physical activity, 5 times a week for children.

•At least 30 minutes of mild to moderate physical activity, 5 times a week for adults.

•Mild to moderate activity is enough to raise the heart beat from its normal levels.

Why is Physical Activity so important?

•Physical activity reduces the risk of suffering from coronary heart disease, obesity or mental health problems

How to increase physical activity.

•Walk or cycle instead of using a car

•Use the stairs instead of the escalator / lift

•Park in the parking bay furthest away from the supermarket

•Don’t use the remote control to change the TV channels

•Skipping, throwing/catching games, parachute games, races etc

•Wash the car.

•Swimming.

•Skate boarding.