Eat the Rainbow- Rainbow Collage
Short description of activity: Find all of your favorite fruits and vegetables in the rainbow.
Type of activity: Content Connection, Food and Nutrition
Minimum Time Needed for Activity: 30 minutes
Grade Level: K – 3rd
Subject Area: ELA, Math, Health, NGSS
Materials:
- Print one Eat The Rainbow Collage worksheet for each student
- Crayons and markers
- Grocery store ads, magazines, glue sticks, scissors
Set up:
- Introduce a discussion of foods being in many different colors. Even some fruits and vegetables come in different colors.
- If needed, specify that for this purpose we are saying what color the food is when it is ripe to eat.
Play:
- Have students color the rainbow on the sheet (red, orange, yellow, green and blue/purple; the space to the left “under” the rainbow can be for white/beige foods if wanted).
- Have students look through grocery ads and clip images of fruits and vegetables.
- If you are unable to get grocery store ads, students can draw and color the vegetables and fruits instead.
- Paste pictures of fruits and vegetables on or near the strip of rainbow of that color.
- Fruits and vegetables should be whole foods, not processed foods (strawberry jam does not count in the red category)
- Have students share their collages with each other. What are the similarities or differences?
Variations:
ELA/Health:
- Use sight words, spelling or vocabulary words regarding the fruits and vegetables and color groups tasted.
- Write a short story to use vocabulary and spelling words.
- Have students do research to identify nutrition facts about a ½ cup serving of one or two vegetables or fruits. Compare to other food in that color or other colors.
Math/NGSS:
- Have students create a list of fruits and vegetables in each color category for the whole class.
- Rank foods/colors in order of amount of times eaten, dis/liked, etc.
- Sort fruits and vegetables according to seasonality or growing zone.
- Which were (can be) grown in your town? Grown in the school garden?
- Which traveled the farthest? Does one color travel farther than another?
- Which grow on a tree, on a plant or vine, or under the ground?
- Sort fruits and vegetables according to plant part
- Vegetables are part of the plant that we eat: root, stem, stalk, flower, leaf.
- Fruits are the product of a fertilized flower, and contain seeds..
- Represent the answers using a graph or table.
- Identify average, median, range, etc.
- Calculate percentages
- Can students identify trends?
Standards:
ELA Standards > Reading: Informational Text > Key Ideas and Details; Integration of Knowledge and Ideas; Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity
ELA Standards > Writing > Text Types and Purposes; Research to Build and Present Knowledge;
ELA Standards > Speaking and Listening > Comprehension and Collaboration; Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas
Math Standards > Measurement & Data > Represent and interpret data; Geometric measurement: understand concepts of volume
Health Education Standards: 1, 3, 4
PE Standards> The physically literate individual demonstrates the knowledge and skills to achieve and maintain a health-enhancing level of physical activity and fitness; The physically literate individual recognizes the value of physical activity for health, enjoyment, challenge, self-expression and/or social interaction.
NGSS Standards> Life Sciences> From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes