Playing with our food - NOT!

Actually that's exactly what we DID do this week, the opposite of accepted food behavior. We had strict instructions to PLAY with our food but NOT TO EAT IT. We made fantastic food art out of the skins, seeds, flesh and dyes of a load of different fruits and vegetables.

food art cornucopia

this was my favorite

the artist at work

The children both knew, and learned, about loads of common and uncommon food available to us now. Kudos to the families that offer kiwis, avocados and mushrooms to their families, I was amazed at what they knew about these foods even if they didn't like them. We studied the structure of fruit vs. veggies, including the confusing tomato which is really both, and the strawberry which wears its seeds on the outside. We squeezed red dye out of red chard, orange color out of carrots and purple out of blueberry skins. Then we painted with it! Everything got peeled and dissected and generally smushed around in order to get a sense of the many different materials forming our plant food.

ordinary and exotic foods to dissect

Milk and eggs, cheese and butter followed but I was not going to bring meat or fish into the classroom. We made do with illustrations for those. Quite a few children had been fishing actually and some had even eaten the catch! What a treat as well as a unique learning experience.
I hope the children identify some different foods the next time they visit the supermarket with parents, they will be impressed! The best food lesson we can give is to visit a working farm and have them pick and eat the stuff right from the plant - organic farms mean you can do just that!