Fruit Salad

I am seriously missing summer fruit.... strawberries, blueberries, peaches... aahhh....
So, I remembered doing this activity with my Kindergarten class, so I thought J and K might like it too.

This one is oh-so easy and colorful too!
The goal is to get them thinking rhythmically by clapping out the syllables of the various fruit names.

Think about each fruit's syllables:
For example, STRAW-berr-y  or BLUE-berr-y or ba-NA-na are all three syllable words and thus get one clap on each syllable.
APP-le, KI-wi, OR-ange all get two claps.
Grapes, Pear, Peach all get one clap.

So, here's what we did:

Go online and get some free clip art of each fruit you want to use. I definitely included ones that I knew were favorites of my kiddos, since I was wondering if this would be a stretch to get them to enjoy this... ya never know. :-)

Put the pics in a Word Document and type the name underneath.
Print off the fruit pics with name underneath.
Cut and paste or tape onto colorful construction paper.

Get a plate (we used plastic).

Call kiddos to come make a fruit salad!
K and J were both pretty stoked - Yay!

Have kiddo/s look at the fruit:

Then they pick out two, three or four (depending on age/ability) to put on the plate.

You can chant something like "Sarah's got a fruit salad, isn't that great! Let's see what she puts on the plate!" while they're selecting fruit.

When they've put the fruit on the plate, take each and put them in a line on the floor.
Chant each fruit name rhythmically while clapping each syllable.

This one was "APP   - le,   CHER- ries,   KI      -wi"
                    CLAP-clap, CLAP- clap,  CLAP-clap

Not very diverse with the combination of 1's, 2's and 3's, but we got better as we went along. :-)


You as parent will be demonstrating as you go - encourage them to join in as they can. K (who is 4) could do it on his own after a little while. J (who is 2) just clapped the number of claps on each word - but they both had fun combining different fruits and clapping the names out rhythmically!
Be as enthusiastic as you can and make it as rhythmically interesting as you know how!

Have fun! And then go make a smoothie to celebrate all your hard work. :-)

And.... the BEST ever book to pair with this activity? 

"Jamberry" by Bruce Degen. Love it.