Montessori-Inspired Fruit and Vegetable Activities Using Free Printables

By Deb Chitwood from Living Montessori Now 

I love focusing on good nutrition at any time of year. Summer is my favorite time for a fruit and vegetable unit, though, when farmers' markets are open in many places with lots of super-fresh fruits and vegetables! Today, I have hands-on fruit and vegetable activities for you! I also have a new fruit and vegetable pack (newsletter subscriber freebie at LivingMontessoriNow.com)! 

You'll find many activities for preschoolers through first graders throughout the year along with presentation ideas in my previous posts at PreK + K Sharing. You'll also find ideas for using free printables to create activity trays here: How to Use Printables to Create Montessori-Inspired Activities. 

At Living Montessori Now, I have a post with resource links of Free Printables for Montessori Homeschools and Preschools. 

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links (at no cost to you).

Montessori Shelves with Fruit & Vegetable Themed Activities

You’ll find Montessori-inspired fruit and vegetable numbers, letters, and and more (part of my subscriber freebie pack, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password … or check the bottom of your latest newsletter if you’re already a subscriber) 

Go to my Free Fruit & Vegetable Printables and Montessori-Inspired Fruit & Vegetable Activities post at Living Montessori Now for the free printables and activity ideas you see on the shelf and collage above!

Free Montessori-Inspired Fruit and Vegetable Pack

Montessori-Inspired Fruit and Vegetable Pack for DIY Cards and Counters, Number or Letter Matching, Number or Letter Basket, Bead Bar Work, Hands-on Math Operations, Number or Letter Salt/Sand Writing Tray, Letter Tracing, DIY Movable Alphabet, and Creative Writing (subscriber freebie, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password – or check your inbox if you’re already a subscriber).

More Montessori-Inspired Fruit and Vegetable Activities

For more Montessori-inspired fruit and vegetable activities, check out these posts with lots of activities and resources:

• Free Eat-a-Rainbow Printables and Montessori-Inspired Activities
• Free Fruit Rainbow Do-a-Dot Printable (Montessori-Inspired Instant Download
• Free Eat-a-Rainbow Cutting Strips (Montessori-Inspired Instant Download)
• Montessori-Inspired Fruit Unit
• Montessori-Inspired Vegetable Unit
• Montessori-Inspired Food Art
• Montessori-Inspired Fruit Matching and Tasting for Toddlers
• Healthy, Yummy, Gluten-Free Blueberry Muffins
• Kids’ Kitchen: Berry Yummy and Healthy Protein-Rich Popsicles
• Cutting a Banana Practical Life Activity for Toddlers
• Healthy, Frozen Raspberry and Yogurt Desert (Dairy-Free and Gluten-Free)
• Ants on a Log Food Fun Preparation for Preschoolers
• Fun with Montessori Apple Coring, Slicing, Spreading, and Sharing
• Yummy Gluten-Free Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins
• Delicious and Nutritious Vegan, Gluten-Free Pumpkin Pie or Pumpkin-Pie Squares
• Super-Healthy and Super-Yummy Strawberry Pineapple Smoothie
• Favorite Gluten-Free Sweet Spinach Muffins {AKA Green Monster Muffins}
• Kids’ Food Fun Pinterest Board

If you'd like ideas for calendar-based themes throughout July, see July Themed Activities for Kids.

Be sure to go to my Free Fruit & Vegetable Printables and Montessori-Inspired Fruit & Vegetable Activities post at Living Montessori Now for lots of free printables and activity ideas!

I hope you find these helpful! :)

Deb Chitwood is a certified Montessori teacher with a master’s degree in Early Childhood Studies from Sheffield Hallam University in Sheffield, England. Deb taught in Montessori schools in Iowa and Arizona before becoming owner/director/teacher of her own Montessori school in South Dakota. Later, she homeschooled her two children through high school. Deb is now a Montessori writer who lives in San Diego with her husband of 45 years (and lives in the city where her kids, kids-in-law, and grandkids live). She blogs at Living Montessori Now.

Montessori-Inspired Eat-a-Rainbow Activities Using Free Printables

By Deb Chitwood from Living Montessori Now 

I love promoting healthy eating, and I'm excited about the printables and activities I have for you today!  An eat-a-rainbow unit is a great way to encourage kids to eat a variety of colorful fruits and vegetables each day. 

Here I'm sharing lots of ideas for eat-a-rainbow activities using free printables. At Living Montessori Now, I have a long list of free eat-a-rainbow printables, including my monthly subscriber freebie pack! 

You'll find many activities for preschoolers through first graders throughout the year along with presentation ideas in my previous posts at PreK + K Sharing. You'll also find ideas for using free printables to create activity trays here: How to Use Printables to Create Montessori-Inspired Activities. 

At Living Montessori Now, I have a post with resource links of Free Printables for Montessori Homeschools and Preschools. 

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links at no cost to you. 

Shelves with Eat-a-Rainbow-Themed Activities 

   
My shelves include materials from my Montessori-inspired eat-a-rainbow numbers and letters (part of my subscriber freebie pack, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password … or check the bottom of your latest newsletter if you’re already a subscriber) 

You could also include a free hand-painted printable lettuce culture card  and free hand-painted printable orange culture card designed by The Montessori Company. Because my shelf space is limited, I like to display the cards vertically where I can rotate one of the books on display. 

The books on my shelves are Rainbow Foods: Exploring Fruits and Vegetables by Color by Kathy Mansfield and Eating the Alphabet: Fruits & Vegetables from A to Z by Lois Ehlert. 

You could mix your eat-a-rainbow-themed activities among your shelves according to curriculum area. Or you could have a special eat-a-rainbow area something like the one pictured. This has a mixture of skill levels. If you’re a homeschooler, just choose the activities that work for your child’s interests and ability levels. If you don’t have room for all the activities you’d like to do, just rotate them. 

Lettuce and Orange Culture Cards 

I have two lovely hand-painted culture cards from The Montessori Company. One is a painting of lettuce, and the other is a painting of an orange. I’m hosting the free printables as an instant download at Living Montessori Now. You can always access the free lettuce culture card here and the free orange culture card here. The lettuce description says: “Lettuce comes in many different varieties and is used most often for its leaves. It grows quickly and is used in salads and other meals.” The orange description says: "An orange is a citrus fruit that can be sweet or sour. Oranges grow on trees in warmer climates and might be used to make your morning juice!" 

Fruit Memory Game Free Printable: Fruit Memory and Match Up Cards from 1+1+1=1 

For this activity, I simply used a Montessori Services basket, the fruit cards with words, and the fruit cards without words. I chose the 8 most colorful fruits to use as a simple memory game. 

Fruit Number Puzzle  (or Vegetable Skip Counting Puzzles) Free Printable: Fruit Number Sequence Puzzle from Montessori By Mom; See ideas for using the puzzle for babies through kindergarteners at Living Montessori Now! 

Free Printables for Older Kids: Vegetable Skip Counting Puzzles from Liz's Early Learning Spot 

For this activity, I used a basket I had and the printable. This is super easy to prepare. Just choose a puzzle that's appropriate for your child's skill level. 

/f/ for Food Puzzle Free Printable: Food Puzzle (Movable Alphabet Letter)  (part of my subscriber freebie pack, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password … or check the bottom of your latest newsletter if you’re already a subscriber) 

This activity just took a few minutes to prepare. I used a Montessori Services clear acrylic tray along with a small tabletop easel and separate container for the puzzle pieces. To make the work a bit easier, copy the page twice and have one copy (not cut apart) on the tray or on a stand. 

If you'd like ideas for teaching phonics, check out my DIY Beginning Montessori Phonics post. 

What Am I? Fruits and Veggies Game Free Printable: What Am I? Fruits and Veggies Activity from Early Learning with Marta, Eaton, and Nathaniel (Note: I used the editable riddles so that I could change "peal" to "peel.") 

For this activity, I just used a Montessori Services basket and the pieces from the printable cut apart. 

This is a fun introduction to riddles! You can have the pictures laid out across the top of the rug and add the riddle below the picture once your child discovers the answer. 

Letter F Object Basket 

Free Printables: Fruit Letters for Letter F Object Basket y (part of my subscriber freebie pack, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password … or check the bottom of your latest newsletter if you’re already a subscriber) 

I used Beanie Babies and small objects I had that started with the/f/ sound. Again, If you'd like ideas for teaching phonics, check out my DIY Beginning Montessori Phonics post.

Rainbow Salt Writing Tray Free Printables: Fruit Letter F Rainbow Writing Tray (part of my subscriber freebie pack, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password … or check the bottom of your latest newsletter if you’re already a subscriber) 

Free Printable: Rainbow Stripes from Open Clip Art (This is actually a printable of the rainbow flag. I simply downloaded the PDF, printed it out at 96%, and cut the edges to the size of my box. You can always use strips of colored  paper if you don't want to use the printable. I had first seen a rainbow salt tray on Learning 4 Kids, and you can find directions for a paper strip tray there.)

For the tray, I used the wooden tray from the Melissa & Doug Lace and Trace Shapes. You can use whatever tray or container work best for you, though.

Fruit and Vegetable Beginning Sound Clip Cards 
 

Free Printable: Beginning Letter Printables from Fruit and Vegetable Montessori Printables at Welcome to Mommyhood 

For this activity, I used a Montessori Services basket, the printable, and some small colored clothespins. 

I like to place a colored dot on the back of the correct letter as a control of error (self-correcting feature). 

Eat the Rainbow Practical Life and Sorting Activity Free Printable: Eat the Rainbow Printable from Growing Up Gabel 

Free Printable: Sorting Fruits and Vegetables from Powerful Mothering 

For this activity, I used a multicraft tray, the printables, 5 different colors of fruits from Learning Resources Super Sorting Pie, containers for the pieces (I used 2 Bambu condiment cups), and toast tong (or whatever tool you prefer) for the fruit transfer. You could use any small fruits or vegetables. I just wanted to be sure I had red, orange, yellow, green, and blue/purple for the rainbow effect.

  
This was a fairly long process, but my 3-year-old granddaughter, Zoey, loved it. First she transferred the fruits to each of the colored words. Then she sorted out all the fruits and vegetables by color. 

Finally, she chose 5 colors of fruits and/or vegetables she'd like to eat. 

I Can Eat a Rainbow Activity  
Free Printable: I Can Eat a Rainbow by Curriculum Castle at Teachers Pay Teachers 

Free Printable: A Rainbow of Fruits and Vegetables from Preschool Is Fun 

Free Printable: My Healthy Plate from Fruit and Vegetable Sorting Cards (Subscriber Freebie) at Wise Owl Factory 

For this activity, I used a multicraft tray, the printables, crayons (mine are in a central location), and a glue stick. 

There are a number of ways you can use this printable. To use over and over again, you could color the crayons and rainbow, laminate the page, and have the fruits and vegetables available for your child to choose each day. You could even have Velcro pieces on the rectangles or plate and backs of each fruit or vegetable. Or your child could color in the page and glue on the fruits and vegetables according to color. Older children could cut out their own fruits and vegetables.

 

You could use the "I Can Eat a Rainbow" printable or this "My Healthy Day - 5 Fruits and Vegetables" printable. (I keep both printables on the tray.) This could even be laminated as a placemat for your child to use when choosing fruits and vegetables for the day.

More Free Eat-a-Rainbow Printables

Go to my post at Living Montessori Now for links to free eat-a-rainbow printables from around the blogosphere: Free Eat-a-Rainbow Printables and Montessori-Inspired Activities. And be sure to subscribe to my email list if you'd like to get an exclusive free printable each month (plus two more awesome freebies right away): Free Printables.

More Nutrition Activities at Living Montessori Now

• Montessori-Inspired Fruit Unit 
• Montessori-Inspired Vegetable Unit
• Kids in the Kitchen Healthy Recipes

If you'd like to focus on manners with children, please check out my eBook Montessori at Home or School: How to Teach Grace and Courtesy! It's written for anyone who'd like to feel comfortable teaching manners to children ages 2-12. I'm also one of the coauthors of the book Learn with Play – 150+ Activities for Year-round Fun & Learning!

Happy healthy eating!
 

Deb Chitwood is a certified Montessori teacher with a master’s degree in Early Childhood Studies from Sheffield Hallam University in Sheffield, England. Deb taught in Montessori schools in Iowa and Arizona before becoming owner/director/teacher of her own Montessori school in South Dakota. Later, she homeschooled her two children through high school. Deb is now a Montessori writer who lives in San Diego with her husband of 41 years (and lives in the city where her kids, kids-in-law, and 3-year-old granddaughter live). She blogs at Living Montessori Now.

Over the Rainbow: 8 Essential Needs of Developing Brains

By Deborah McNelis

Don’t you love rainbows? Really, who doesn’t?  Certainly Debbie Clement and Laura Eldredge love rainbows! 

One of my Pinterest boards actually is all about rainbows. And, Somewhere Over the Rainbow is one of my favorite songs. Do you think it could have anything to with being Irish? At this time of the year it is fun to think of good luck and a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. 

So, I have created a post of a RAINBOW of needs all children want all adults to know. This is rainbow leads to something better than a pot of gold at the end and it doesn’t depend on luck!  Having these eight needs met will contribute to a happy life with a healthy and well developed brain!  (The scarecrow could have used these early in his life!)   

Respect

Attention

Interaction

Nutrition

Bedtime routine

Outdoor time

Water

Respect: Every child is beautiful unique and of course very special. Giving a child respect as an individual with their own personality, set of skills, abilities and interests contributes greatly to healthy self respect. Understanding early brain development aids adults in providing the respect children deserve. Asking, "what do you think?" and giving a child an age appropriate choice are two easy ways to show respect.

 

Attention: Children have a psychological need for attention. If they don’t get attention for doing positive things, we all know they then resort to doing anything that will get them the attention they need. So it is important that adults use their own attention to focus on the ways they can provide positive attention for children.

 

Interaction:  The brains of children are wired best when having experiences of play and interaction with real objects and people. Brains are experience dependent. They do not just magically develop. Children have to have experiences for their brains to grow.  Language also only develops through direct conversation. So, screen time is not the optimal way for a child to develop. Using all the senses with opportunities to explore, create and experiment with REAL objects is always best.

Nutrition: What is good for the body is also good for the brain. The brain needs a variety of nutritious foods to function well. A well balanced meal boots the level of “the feel good chemicals” in the brain. As a result a child can play and learn well. If a child eats a lot of carbohydrates instead of a healthy meal including protein, a child may have difficulty paying attention and may become moody or exhibit hyperactive types of behaviors. The Today I Ate A Rainbow  kit is a fun and easy way to help kids eat healthy foods!

Bedtime Routine: Routines in general are very comforting for brains and bedtime is an especially important one. Bedtime is leading to a time of separation so a calm, caring, comforting routine is very beneficial. Additionally, sleep is critical to keeping brain systems in balance for better learning, attention, moods and behaviors. 

Outdoor Play: Brains benefit greatly from movement, physical activity and nature. Even 10 minutes of time spent outdoors reduces stress effects on the brain. The brain then has better memory and problem solving abilities, and a longer attention span.  Any type of play is the way the brain learns best and rough and tumble play has been found to positively impact wiring in the thinking areas of the brain. 

Water: The brain is about s75% water. It is important that children get the water they need for healthy brain function. Sometimes when feeling a lack of energy, all it may take is a drink of water to feel less fatigue. (That is true for any age brain!) …. AND water is also fun to play in. Lots of brain connections are made through playing and experimenting with water in many ways!

The brain development series is even in a rainbow of colors! You can find each of these in the wonderful new  

EARLY EDUCATION EMPORIUM! 

Have you check out all of the wonderful products from these knowledgeable, dedicated and experienced authors?

Wishing you a March filled with rainbows and ... maybe even a pot of gold!

Deborah McNelis,  MS. ed, is an Early Brain Development Specialist and owner of Brain Insights®, Deborah is the award winning author of, The Brain Development Series, Naturally Developing Young Brains, and the Love Your Baby App. She has been seen in several publications, heard on numerous radio shows, and receives rave reviews for her enlightening and engaging presentations.

Deborah’s newest initiative helps entire communities, “Create Great Connections”. Her goal through this work is for everyone to gain an understanding of early brain development, it’s impact, and the ways we can all easily make a REAL difference.