Over the course of the year, we’ve noticed that our Pumpkins love clementines, and we order them weekly for snack. To expose the children to more citrus flavors, we decided to have a citrus exploration with four different fruits. We sampled lemons, grapefruits, blood oranges, and navel oranges.
Sensory exploration is a big part of our class, but we don’t always focus on taste as a way to enjoy new sensory experiences. Of course, the children eat different flavors and textures during snack, but it’s exciting to carve out other times to zoom in on the children’s experience of taste and texture.
We talked about how the citrus tasted and felt when we bit into the pieces. The lemons and grapefruits were very sour, but the navel oranges and blood oranges were sweeter! They were all very juicy. We also observed the different colors, from yellow to pinkish-red to purple, and many shades in between.
Sometimes the sourness made our lips pucker! And sometimes the juice ran down our chins. We loved our citrus tasting, even when it was unexpected.
*This was an optional activity during open time, and some children chose to play in other areas instead. Exposing children to a variety of foods in a playful, no-pressure way can help them learn to try new foods and enjoy them over time. We’re looking forward to more food explorations in spring!
While we tasted the citrus, we talked about our observations: How does it taste and feel on our tongues? What does it look like? How are the fruits similar and different?
Here are some of our words:
“It’s juicy”
“Lemons they’re sour”
“I put them on my avocado toast”
“Red just like your shirt”
“It’s rainbow”
“It’s bumpy”
“I found a seed”
