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Rainbow Fruit Salad

7/26/2016

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This simple summer salad was a delightful treat.  With a little prep the kids were able to help out a lot!
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Slice watermelon with a crinkle knife into bite size pieces.  Remember to keep both hands on the handle :)
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The kids love to use this cute little strawberry slicer.
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Slice kiwi circles into half moons.  Such a fun and tactile way to learn about fractions and shapes!
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Squeeze lime juice for a tangy dressing.
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Pick a few fresh mint sprigs from the garden and crush with your hands to release the most minty taste.  The kids are learning that the tender mint sprigs at the top have the sweetest flavor.
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Combine your rainbow colored fruit selection in a large bowl.
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Dress with fresh lime juice and crushed mint leaves.
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Delicious salad kids!
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We read 'The Fruits We Eat' by Gail Gibbons and learned all about how different fruits grow.
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Fruit Forest

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The kids designed a 'fruit forest' by showing which fruits grow on bushes, vines and trees.
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This group created a collaborative 'fruit forest' poster.
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Sensory Fruit Exploration!

​We explored different varieties of fruit.  Using an interdisciplinary approach, we included written words, punctuation, and fractions in the display.
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As we were exploring we pondered these questions:

"Which fruits contain seeds?"
"Are there any fruits that do not have seeds?"
"What seeds can you eat? What seeds can you not eat?"
"Which seeds are small? Which seeds are big?"
"What seeds are soft? What seeds are big?"
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The kids were excited to discover that strawberries have their seeds on the outside!

We recognized that all of the fruits have seeds!
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Scientifically speaking, a fruit is a seed-bearing structure that develops from the ovary of a flowering plant.
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We explored the skin of the different fruits and practiced vocabulary words like "fuzzy", "smooth", "rough", "bumpy" etc.
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Exploring on the light table allows us to see so much of the beautiful structure and variations of the different fruits!
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Check out how cool these grapes are!
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Magnifying glasses helped to grow our curiosity...
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We enhanced our sensory experience and tried to identify the fruit through touch, smell, and taste without using our sense of sight.

​Touch:
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Smell:
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Taste:
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Seed Hypothesis

"How many seeds do you guess there are in this lemon?"

​"8"
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We carefully counted out the seeds...
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... and made a graph to compare our hypothesis and the actual amount.
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Lemon and lime stamps!
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Especially fun when used to decorate the letter L!
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Avocado boats!
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Fruit Glasses

Having fun with 'fruit' colored binoculars!
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Harvesting Figs

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Remember that fig tree we planted in December 2014?
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Now we have a delicious bounty of home grown figs!
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Fruit Juice and Yeast Science Experiment

What happens when you mix yeast and fruit juice on a hot day?

​Step one: Put one full packet of fast rising yeast in a zip lock bag.
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Step 2: Pour in one half cup of fruit juice  
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Step 3: Try to get most of the air out of the ziplock before closing.

Step 4: Shake the bag vigorously.

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Step 5: Place in the sun.

Results: After one hour the bags filled up with gas. After two hours two bags popped and one stayed sealed.

Discussion: The yeast cells are so small that we can only see them with our microscope! The yeast cells eat up the sugar in the juice and breathe out carbon dioxide gas. The yeast is ALIVE!!!
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Volcano Fun! 
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We add the baking soda solution first.
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Then we added vinegar with red food coloring.
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Explosion!
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Does the lava feel hot or cold? 

​It's cold!!! Its cold because the chemical reaction between baking soda and vinegar pulls heat from your hand. In nature volcano eruptions are not made with baking soda and vinegar! They are caused by heat and pressure from deep inside the Earth.
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Painting Puzzles!
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Painting Cars!
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Water Fun!
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See you next time!
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