Looking for a collaborative project that encourages children to work together? Try making a friendship fruit salad! This can be made by having each child bring in their favorite seasonal fruit; or you can use leftover fruit from other snacks made throughout the week.
If working with 3-5 year olds, allow them to help with cutting the fruit into small pieces to share with their friends. If working with toddlers, you might need to offer more assistance with the cutting process. Once the fruits have been chopped, the children can help dump them all together to be mixed into one big salad, and then take a serving spoon and scoop from the community bowl onto their own bowl.
Talk with children about the teamwork that it took to make the salad! Talk about the colors of the fruits, and the different flavors and textures that each fruit brings to the mix.
This is a perfect opportunity to introduce concepts about about nutrition, colors, textures, and flavors. Maybe you and the children can even have a discussion about gardening and growing fruit! Children will love the opportunity to work together and enjoy a sweet treat.
Read more about how another preschool teacher incorporated this project into her own classroom’s curriculum.
