Fun Ways to Eat Fruit and Veggies

Eating more fresh fruits and vegetables is good for your health. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) recommends eating at least five servings of fruits or veggies each day. To parents this seems like a dishearten duty, but teaching children about the importance of eating fruits and vegetables and getting creative in the preparation and presentation of these foods will make it easier on the parents.

The following tips can help make fruit and veggies time fun for children:

• Let children be involved in preparing fruits and veggies
• Take them with you to the grocery shop, let the children pick new fruit or veggies
• Make fruit or veggie smoothie
• Make fruit or veggie Popsicle
• Make designs or faces on fruit or vegetable for snacks and meals.
• Pick a color of the day for the fruits and veggies
• Plant a garden, let the child pick out the seeds and have them help plant the garden. Have the child help harvest the vegetables and use it to cook.

 

Be creative!

Easter Egg Fun with Natural Dyes

Today is Good Friday and many people are preparing to celebrate Easter.  One of the fun parts of Easter for children is dying eggs.  There are commercial egg dyes available, but have you ever tried to color your eggs using food items?  I did this with some of my employees and they were amazed at the colors and technique.  So here is some suggestion for dyeing this years’ eggs.   Please share your pictures or other ideas.  Remember to keep eggs refrigerated for food safety, do not use them for your egg hunt.  They should not be kept out of refrigeration for more than 2 hours.  Plastics are much more safe and you can eat the ones you dyed.  Have fun while exploring.

Eggs simmered in water to cover for 15 minutes with 1 tablespoons of white vinegar for each cup of water with your choice of one of the materials below will produce a shade of the color shown.  Use your own judgment about quantities..  This is art – not a science so, explore and see what wonderful colors you discover using some commonly found items.

MATERIAL	COLOR
Fresh beets, cranberries or radishes or frozen raspberries	Pinkish red
Yellow onion skins	Orange
Orange or lemon peels, carrot tops, celery seed or ground cumin	Delicate Yellow
Ground turmeric	Yellow
Spinach leaves	Pale green
Yellow Delicious apple peels	Green-gold
Canned blueberries or red cabbage leaves	Blue
Strong brewed coffee	Beige to brown
Dill seeds	Brown-gold
Chili powder	Brown-orange
Purple or red grape juice or beet juice	Grey

Be Creative with Natural Dyes

Classroom Layout Tips

 

“The physical layout should also reflect you. Don’t hesitate to give the room your personal touch with plants, art, rugs, posters, and maybe some cozy pillows for the reading corner.”

     

“Arrange the room so that you can make eye contact with every student and reach each student with ease,” suggests sixth-grade teacher Jane Baird.

Second-grade teacher Pamela Shannon agrees: “Don’t be afraid to make seat and desk changes if the arrangement doesn’t work. You are in charge.”

For more tips and suggestions please go visit the article “Classroom Organization: The Physical Environment “

How to Build a Creative Classroom

Let’s pass it on to our kids.

It’s the beginning of the year, and all teachers, childcare providers and  parents  want to make sure that their child’s  learning community is put together in a  comfortable way. However because a room is comfortable does not mean that it should’ t be eye-catching, engaging, creative and colorful. Here are a few tips to help you create a  creative class room.

Creativity is innovation.
“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results. If something isn’t working, then it’s broken and needs to be fixed. Come up with something else that will work for your students.”

Creativity is thinking outside the box.
“Everything doesn’t always have to be black and white. Sometimes the oddball activities are the ones that work.

Creativity is passion.
Be passionate about what you are doing. You are there to inspire students to become lifelong learners. If you want them to love learning, you have to love what you are teaching.”

You can find these tips and many more at “22 Simple Ideas for Harnessing Creativity in the Elementary Classroom”.