Fruit Salad

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Age
2-5 years
Child Development
Well-being & belonging (physical activity); Literacy (vocabulary, numeracy).
Equipment
4 different coloured objects such as pieces of paper or blocks
Physical Activity

This activity aims to develop the fundamental movement skills of locomotion (running), coordination (jumping, hopping), and balance.

How to Play
  1. Designate each corner of the room as a different fruit and its corresponding colour, e.g., apples (red), oranges (orange), bananas (yellow), grapes (green).
  2. Assign each child a fruit that was chosen in Step 1.
  3. Have children go to the corner of the room that is designated for their specific fruit (e.g. oranges go to the orange corner).
  4. When you call out a specific fruit, everyone in that corner runs to the centre of the room, completes a specific skill the number of times requested as fast as they can, and returns to their corner.
  5. Repeat this process using different skills and different combinations of fruit, e.g., jump 5 times, spin in a circle 5 times, hop on one foot 5 times.
  6. When you yell out “fruit salad!” all the children run to the centre as fast as they can, complete a specific skill the number of times requested and return to their designated corners.
Change it up / Alternatives / Additional Options
  • Put pieces of fruit in plastic bags, then in paper bags around the room; have the children go get a bag (hint: putting the fruit in a plastic bag first will stop the paper bag from getting wet and soggy) . On the outside of each bag have instructions (e.g. spin in a circle 5 times, etc.). After they have completed the instructions, they get to reach in to the bag without looking and try to guess the fruit.
  • For younger children you may want to post pictures of the fruit in the corners and give them fruit shaped or fruit coloured name tags to help them understand which corner they should start at.
  • For older children you may use more difficult skills in the centre such as rolling around, galloping, bouncing, throwing and catching a ball, etc.
  • Get more people active by switching the game around and have the corner that is called stay where they are and all other corners come to the middle to perform the task.

Adaptations

  • For children who are deaf or hard of hearing, act out the actions or provide pictures of the intended movements as well as pictures to indicate which corner was called.
  • For children with impairments in flexibility or gross motor skills, encourage them to perform the movements as much as they can, understanding that it may look different to others.
  • For a child with a visual impairment, provide textured objects to provide a tactile sensation in the corner, such as the fruit themselves or a different object in each corner.
  • If you have a participant who uses a wheelchair, be intentional around the movements that you select to allow them to participate.
  • If you have a child with another type of disability not mentioned above, they may be able to participate in this activity without adaptations or modifications.

Adapted from Hop, Skip and a Jump.