This past Thursday at work, I had a girl scout troop come in to earn their snack badge. I am very grateful to my intern, who helped me coordinate activities for 16 second and third graders! For anyone looking for a fun activity with your kids or an event to run with a group of children, try making fruit and veggie faces!
Basically, I had bowls of different fruits (star fruit) and vegetables (broccoli, carrots, tomatoes, celery) cut up for them. I chose these veggies because they were the easiest for me to get together for the event. I also gave them plain hummus to use as glue (props to my intern for the suggestion). When I run something like this again, I am going to add 1-2 more fruit options. I was just going to do all veggies; however, I really wanted them to try a weird fruit (like star fruit). They all had a small empty plate and were instructed to make their own face out of the ingredients. I told everyone that we would eat the faces later and that if they put something on their plate that they didn't like, they didn't have to eat it. My main rule for them was that they couldn't say things like "eww" or "gross". All they had to say was "no thank you" or "I didn't like it". The girls were really great about this too.
I was pleasantly surprised at how creative they all were! I gave them about 15 minutes, since we had another activity to do; however, you can definitely expand the time frame. I also started the activity talking about vitamins and minerals and the benefits for our bodies. Here were some of the fun creations!
I will say I was shocked at how many girls inhaled the veggies on their plates. Some girls has also never tried raw broccoli before. A few liked it. It was nice to see some of the girls talking and munching on carrots. I was also surprised at how many girls had tried hummus at home and also how many tried it for the first time and liked it. I think this was a fun and non threatening way for getting kids to try new foods. It helped having their peers around while snacking and trying new things. At the end of the activity, I gave stickers to the "most creative face", "face that used the most ingredients", and "funniest face". The girls were all able to eat their faces after this; however, most of the kids were eating and snacking the whole time :)
