Use the following integrated science and math activities to help primary students investigate the colors of different fruits and vegetables. Students learn about the various colors fruits and vegetables can be. Then, in integrated science and elementary math lesson plans, students sequence pictures of fruits and vegetables that change color over time, and practice sorting and classifying foods by different attributes.
Fruit and Vegetable Lesson Plan – Plant Colors in Nature
Build background about colors in nature and help students activate prior knowledge about some kinds of plants people eat by asking children to brainstorm fruits and vegetables of different colors. Record students' suggestions in a chart on the board, organizing the foods by color.
Then, discuss whether the same kind of food might be different colors, and under what circumstances. For example, do foods change color as they ripen and rot? Do different variations of the same kind of food exist in different colors?
Growing Colors – What Colors Are Fruits and Vegetables?
Read aloud the trade picture book Growing Colors by Bruce McMillan [Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Books, 1988]. Before reading, display the cover of the book, and have students identify the color and food pictured in each letter of the title.
As the book is read, have students identify how the kind of food shown on each spread is growing. Ask students to sort the fruits and vegetables into three categories – foods that grow in the ground, foods that grow on the ground, and foods that grow above the ground – while the teacher records the results in a three-column chart on the board.
After reading, have students summarize what they have learned about what colors of fruits and vegetables exist in nature and how different kinds of foods grow.
Sequencing Activity – Chronological Order
In this integrated science and elementary math lesson plan, have students practice sequencing by putting in logical order pictures or photographs of foods that can be different colors at different times.
For example, have students put in chronological order pictures of:
- a banana turning from unripe green to ripe yellow to rotten brown.
- a pumpkin turning from green to yellow to orange as it ripens.
For assessment, have students glue the pictures down in order and then label each picture and write a sentence or two that explains what is happening over the course of each sequence of events.
Sort and Classify Activity – Food Classification
Discuss or review how to sort objects and classify them into groups by different attributes. Then, give small groups a collection of real fruits and vegetables or pictures of different kinds of fruits and vegetables that are all different colors. Provide a collection with enough variety that it can be sorted different ways.
For example, foods might be sorted:
- by color
- into a fruit group and a vegetable group
- by how each food item grows – in, on, or above the ground
- into two groups: one consisting of all the same kind of food, just different colors (like a group of red, yellow, green, and brown peppers), and the other of all the other kinds of food from the collection
For assessment, have students explain the logic behind how they have sorted the foods each time.
Extension Activities
- In an elementary art activity, students paste down pictures or photographs of fruits and vegetables of different colors to form a collage rainbow.
- In an elementary health activity, older students or more advanced students research information about the nutritional benefits of eating fruits and vegetables of each of the colors of the rainbow. Have students create an illustrated poster to present their findings about the specific vitamins, phytochemicals, and nutrients found in foods of each color.
In this elementary science lesson plan, students learn about colors found in nature and gain experience with using the primary math skills of sequencing and sorting and classifying for practical reasons.
Renee Carver - Renée Carver has an Elementary Education degree and over ten years of experience writing and editing children's educational products.
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