Consumption of fruit in the daily diet is important for all age groups!  What’s to love about fruit?  A lot actually!  Fruit is available in many forms from fresh to frozen to canned and even dried.  Fruit is a nutrient dense, low calorie food that can be eaten alone as a snack or incorporated into a meal or dessert.  Fruits can be eaten raw or cooked and there are so many to choose from, some more seasonal than others!  This fruit lesson focuses on the classification of fruits, how to select quality fruits and explores enzymatic browning. It also features delicious galette labs.  Galettes are unique to most students and a little different than making pies, but they are easy to make and amazingly delicious especially with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top!

Set

• Randomly pass out these free TPT fruit cards (just use the fruit cards) to students and ask them to group themselves into 6 groups. Explain that they need to be able to justify their placements. I like to see their thought process in doing this as some will group by size, color, seeds/pits, etc.  Discuss their groupings.
• Ask students what’s to love about fruit?  Share and discuss responses.  Explain that there actually a lot reasons:
  • • Variety of forms:  fresh, frozen, canned and dried (our focus will be on the fresh)
  • • Can be eaten raw or cooked
  • • Can be eaten as a snack, dessert or incorporated in a meal
  • Nutritious–low calorie, nutrient dense

Materials

• Fruit Cards (cut apart)
• Fruit Classification Descriptions (printed off)
• Colored Pencils, Markers or Crayons
• Laptops or iPads
• Lab Ingredients

Activities

• Just as you grouped yourselves at the beginning of the period with your fruit cards, fruits are actually grouped together by certain characteristics….these groups are called classifications.
• Prior to this activity, make sure you have the fruit classifications/descriptions printed off and separated by stations or areas.
• Students are to take their fruit card and circulate throughout the stations. Not only are they to complete the name and description columns of their notes form, but they are to leave their fruit card at the classification station that fits it’s description.
• Go over the fruit card placements as a class and get students to determine if the examples represented are correct or not.  Corroborate if correct and deny if incorrect.  If incorrect, the card must be relocated to another group.  Get the owner or another volunteer to relocate it. Once the examples are correct, students can write them down in their notes.
• Since not all of the fruits are included in the cards, practice identifying those that are not.  These include: Berries: cranberries, currants and gooseberries, Drupes: apricots, nectarines, plums, Pomes: no additional to include, Citrus: tangerines, grapefruit, kumquats, and limes, Melons: casaba, crenshaw, Tropical: avocados, figs, dates, guavas, papayas, pomegranates
• Have students practice identifying the fruit families by completing the “Color-Coded Fruit Classification Chart” and collect it for a grade or go over it in class.
• For a do now activity, give students this prompt: Some fruits turn brown when you cut them. Why?  Use this YouTube video to answer the following questions:
  • • What is the name of the term used to explain this process?
  • • Explain in your own words why this happens (2-3 sentences).
  • • How can the browning of fruits be reduced or prevented?
  • Examples of foods that will brown easily

   

• Discuss selecting fresh fruit.  Ask students: How do you choose the best fruit when faced with a whole pile of fruit in a grocery store or at a farmers market?  Look at:
  • • Ripeness–color, fragrance, texture–varies depending on fruit (avoid damaged fruits)
  • • Maturity–full size (avoid immature fruit)
  • • Buying only what you need/can use quickly as ripe can go bad in short period of time
  • Buy in season for best prices
• To learn more about specific fruits, individually and randomly assign each students a fruit to research.  They will be creating a Fruit Flier incorporating the criteria explained on the guide sheet.
• Create and set up a Gallery Walk Trivia Activity. Once their fliers are submitted, print them off or create QR Codes linking them. Set up as a gallery walk and create trivia questions that students must answer as they move from flier to flier.  Trivia questions will have to be custom designed by you and based off the information included in student flier projects.
• Finally, introduce students to a unique fruit lab.  Explain that they will be making different versions of fruit galettes. Galettes are free form pies or tarts that are easy to make and are versatile because of the different fruits you can use. The nice thing about galettes it that each student can form their own. Because my classes are 43 minutes long, students make/bake the galettes one day and I remove and store them overnight.  The next day, we warm the galettes and serve with vanilla ice cream.  Students cut them into smaller portions so each group can sample each others’ fruit galettes. Students then complete the lab follow-up questions. Note: My students used pre-made pie dough due to short class periods, however, if you’re on a block schedule, you may want your students to prepare the crust from scratch.  Here is an easy pie crust that can be made in 15 minutes!

Attachments

• Attribute Category Game–Fruit Cards (TPT Freebie)
• Fruit Classifications (PDF)
• Fruit Notes (PDF)
• Color Coded Fruit Classification (PDF)
• Fruit Flier Project (PDF)
• Mixed Berry Galettes (I subbed blueberries for blackberries and omitted the pistachios)
• Peach Galettes
• Apple Galettes
• Easy Pie Crust Recipe
• Fruit Lab Follow-Up Questions (PDF)

Similar Lessons

• Fruit Lab
• Periodic Table of Fruits & Vegetables