Hobbies And Interests
Guess the Fruit
The teacher or game leader describes attributes of a fruit. "It is round. It is orange. It is bumpy." The children try to guess the correct fruit by the clues that the teacher announces (in this case, orange). At the end of the game children can be rewarded with a bowel of tasty fruit. This game is best for children in small groups or for individual children. It can be hard to keep track of everyone's answers in a large group.
Fruit Patterns
This game can be played on paper with illustrations of fruit, or it can be played with real fruits. Draw or lay out the fruit into different patterns. You could have: orange orange apple; or apple, apple, apple; or banana apple orange. There are hundreds of combinations that can be made with different kinds of fruit. Children will try to guess what fruit will occur next in the pattern. This game is not only fun but also helps preschool children learn how to recognize patterns.
Apple Stacks
This game is best played with small groups of children or with individual children. This game can be played with whole apples or with apples cut into circular pieces. The whole apples usually will be harder to stack, which makes the numbers more manageable for preschool children. Take the first apple and tell the child that he or she has one apple. Have the child stack another apple on top of the first. Tell the child that he or she has now added one more apple to the stack and now has two apples. Continue to stack the apples as high as possible mentioning the numbers as you go along. When the apples fall mention how they have been subtracted. "You had three apples and one fell. Now you have two apples." When the child gets bored eat some of the apple.
Fruit Salad
This is a game that is fun for children to play in large groups. Have on hand a variety of whole fruits. The object of this game is to allow children to identify different fruit based on color, texture and shape. This is not a recipe for actual fruit salad. Get a large bowel from your house and set it in front of the children. Tell the children that you will all be making fruit salad together. Have the child identify the fruit that they want to add to the salad and place it in the bowel. Continue in this manner, allowing each child to place a fruit in the bowel, until all the fruit is gone.