Summer is the perfect time for a Fruit Theme Home Preschool unit! Your preschooler will love working with the bright colors and juicy flavors of all of summer's fruit! I hope you find something that your little one will enjoy doing this week.
If you regularly do preschool using weekly themes, be sure to check out Over 30 COMPLETE Weekly Preschool Theme Units that we've completed as well as my entire list of 52 Weekly Preschool Themes. You may also want to check out of Daily Home Preschool Schedule and this handy FREE Printable Preschool Planning Page.
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Plastic Fruits and Veggies-- Sorting and Fine Motor Slicing
We have a fantastic set of plastic fruit and veggies, with Velcro holding the halves together, and plastic knives to practice cutting. I can't remember the brand of the exact set we have, but it is most similar to this set from Learning Resources. This toy has gotten so much use over the years, both for the fine motor practice that it provides, and the imaginative play that it inspires.
This week we first spent some time sorting our fruit and veggies, making sure that the girls knew which was which. I was surprised at how much they didn't know for this activity, but I guess it something that doesn't come up all that often in every day conversation. After we sorted, it was time to slice!
Fruit Basket Gross Motor Game
We often play some version of this game when I am looking for some kind of gross motor activity. I knew that it would work perfectly for our fruit week. First I set all of our plastic fruit and veggies in a pile on one side of the room. Then I gave each of my girls a basket and had them take turns running down to the pile and choosing a fruit (instead of a veggie). They each filled their basket with fruit!
Next I put only the fruit on the far side of the room. Then I called out a gross motor skill for them to do as they made their way across the room to collect a fruit for their basket. Lena (almost 4) did things like skip, somersault, run backwards, side shuffle and frog jump. Maggie (young 2) hopped, walked backwards, marched, and crawled. There were lots of giggles going on with this game, and it really got their heart rates up and blood flowing.
Fruit Matching or Memory Cards
This fruit matching game from Creative World of Varya has lots of options for a fruit week. The little cards can be used to match the clip art image to a real picture, or to play a memory game. You can also use them to help with first letter sound recognition or sounding out simple words. They got a lot of use this week in our house!
Bananagrams
Other than the fact that these letter tiles come in a banana shaped pouch, there isn't anything 'fruity' about this Bananagrams game. But they've been on my Amazon Wishlist for oh-so-long and I just knew that I could come up with so many fun things to do with them. So I used Fruit Week as an excuse to buy them! You can use letter tiles like these to practice letter identification, sorting, and sounding out words.
I used them this week for our sorting activity (see below) but they also pretended they were soup, seeds, and acorns. Lena and I played a game where we tossed them all into a hat. Maggie made little stacks all over the coffee table. These may just go on my 'favorite toys' list!
Fruit Word Identification and Sorting
I set up this little arrangement during Lena's nap one day using our Bananagram tiles, plastic fruit, and fruit matching cards. Lena sounded out the words (with help) and sorted all the fruit and fruit cards into the appropriate place.
Later, Maggie did the same activity but without the letters and words. I just showed her the pile of the different fruit and helped her sort it. You could also work on beginning letter sounds or sort by color with this activity!
Watermelon Potato Prints
This craft is relatively easy to set up, and uses an art-making process that we've actually never done before- printmaking. Simply take some small potatoes and cut them in quarters. Paint them like a watermelon and stamp away!
Biggie Bead Fine Motor Practice
Lena loves to do these Perler Biggie Beads, and there are tons of patterns available on the Perler website. This week she did a watermelon, and Maggie enjoys just putting the beads on a board without a pattern.
Picture Books
We read some fantastic fruit books this week. Read all about them in this post!
Field Trip to Farmer's Market
If your town has farmer's markets during the summer, take your kids for a look around. They'll be able to see what kinds of fruit is grown locally, and what kinds of fruit is imported from different climates. You can encourage your children to speak to the farmers to find out about their jobs.
Many farms offer 'pick your own' fruit during the summer harvest season. Do a quick Google search for your area and see if there is somewhere close that you can take your little ones to pick their own fruit!
Paper Plate Fruit Salad
Paper plate crafts are fantastic because they are EASY! For this week, Lena and I worked together to make a fruit salad. We made a lemon, and orange, some watermelon and some apples. Just color or paint your paper plates appropriately. It really doesn't get any easier!
Tiny Strawberry Plants
These tiny little strawberry plants were available in the Target dollar section recently (and were actually 50% off!). My girls love anything tiny, so I got lots of excited squeals from my girls when they saw these. We carefully watered them and set them out on our sunny back porch. No sprouts yet, but the girls like to check on them.
If you can't find little prepotted plants like these, grab a pack of seeds and let your kids do some planting in a pot or in the ground outside. Even if nothing ever comes from it, kids love to watch little sprouts and practice their watering.
Grape Necklace Fine Motor Practice (and Snack!)
Wash up some grapes, get a (clean!) yarn needle and some thread, and let your little one make a grape necklace. Lena made a whole string of grapes and then wore her necklace during our movie night and enjoyed a healthy snack. Even Maggie was able to string a few before she lost patience. This activity required intense concentration and was some super fine motor practice. Supervise your children appropriately with the needle!
iPad
While my poor, old, first generation iPad can't handle Fruit Ninja, it is a super fun game that even the littlest of kids can play and enjoy. The girls play it sometimes when they visit their grandparents, and, while it's not exactly educational, it would be a fun way to incorporate some technology into a fruit theme week.
Need more ideas for your own fruit theme week? Check out all of these ideas on the Cutting Tiny Bites Fruit Theme Pinterest Board, and be sure to follow me on Pinterest, as well!
You May Also Be Interested In:
Weather Theme- Weekly Home Preschool
Cooking With Kids: Healthy Fruit Pizza from Mom Explores The Smokies
Montessori Inspired Fruit Unit from Living Montesori Now
Printable Fruit Pack For Preschool from Coffee Cups And Crayons
From Other Great Bloggers:
Sorting Fruit And Vegetables By Color from Powerful MotheringCooking With Kids: Healthy Fruit Pizza from Mom Explores The Smokies
Montessori Inspired Fruit Unit from Living Montesori Now
Printable Fruit Pack For Preschool from Coffee Cups And Crayons
