Session #1 : Discovering plants – cutting and using fruits

and vegetables

Whatever students’ abilities, introducing or revising key vocabulary is essential and should be done throughout the sequence.

• Naming: Presentation of different fruits and vegetables as well as peas/beans. For comparison, we used fruits and vegetables grown in Martinique (orange, watermelon, pineapple, banana, cucumber, tomato…) and elsewhere (apple, grapes, kiwi…). With the teacher’s help, students name fruits and vegetables presented and say whether these grow in Martinique or whether they come from another country.
• Cutting: The teacher chooses four or five fruits and vegetables for cutting. This is in order to introduce vocabulary progressively, especially with younger children. Using fruits of different types and sizes, students can note differences in the shapes, sizes and colour of seeds. Students will remark that there are no seeds in vegetables and that certain fruits like the tomato are eaten as vegetables.
• Cutting the fruits and vegetables allows for the introduction of new vocabulary and the consolidation of previously acquired vocabulary. At the end of this activity, students should have two groups of vocabulary : one group composed of fruit and vegetable names (lettuce, pineapple, banana, tomato, cucumber), the other group relative to the parts of the fruits and vegetables (skin, seed, leaf/leaves, flesh/pulp, stem, core) Having worked with children 3 to 5 years, I limited the number of new words per session to five and used the simplest most common terms. See Document 1_Vocabulary The Apple as well as Material 1_Colour the parts of the apple, Material 2_Colour the parts of the apple, Material 3_Name the parts of the apple.
• Taste and self expression: Students may now taste the fruits and vegetables and express themselves. Vocab : I like…/I don’t like…./It’s sweet/sour/bitter. See Material 4_ Expressing likes and dislikes

Going further

• Visit to the local supermarket’s fruit and vegetable section
• Visit to the local market
• Cooking with fruits and veggies – making fruit smoothies, an apple pie, a pineapple upside down cake…
• Make an intercultural food chart: Foods from home/ Foods from far away. Under each column next to each fruit children place stickers of happy or sad faces to indicate likes and dislikes. The fruit with the most ‘happy faces’ wins and has to be brought in for snack the following week.