Name plants you and your child like to eat. Make groups of plants that are the same color. What plant part do you like to eat the most?
5–15 minutes
Get Ready
Materials you will need:
- Plants Color Wheel PDF
- Crayons or markers (multiple colors)
- Small pieces of paper (about 2 square inches) or small sticky notes
- Tape
- Optional: Printer
Things to do before the activity:
- Print or draw a copy of the Plant Color Wheel.
A character with a speech bubble and rabbit with a thought bubble.
Fruits and vegetables come in so many colors!
What color do you like to eat?
Explore!
Step 1.
Find plants you eat at home. Look in the refrigerator, your garden, a cupboard, or anywhere you have foods that are parts of plants. Fruits, vegetables, herbs, and seeds are some plant parts.
Step 2.
Talk about the plants you find. Use the plant part name as you talk about seeds (pumpkin or sunflower), roots (carrot or garlic), leaves (lettuce or parsley), stems (celery or asparagus), flowers (broccoli or cauliflower), and fruits (apple or banana).
- Point out how each plant part has a role to play in helping the plant grow.
- Together count the number of foods that are (leaves and roots). Do we have more foods that are (leaf) plants or (root) plants?
Step 3.
Notice the colors of the different foods. Choose five food colors. Have your child color each section of the color wheel with a different food color choice.
Step 4.
Keep track of foods you eat that are from plants. As you prepare meals over the next few days, talk about foods you use that come from plants.
- Have your child draw pictures of the foods on small squares of paper. Match the color of the food to the corresponding section of the color wheel. Tape the picture to that section. What part of the plant is that (bright red pepper)?
Step 5.
Compare how many foods there are of each color. After a few days, look at the color wheel together. Count and compare the number of plants in each color section.
- Notice the plant parts that are in each color section.
- Count the number of plants in each color section. Did we eat more (red) or more (green) plants today?
- Which color section has the most foods that are (root) plants?
Review!
Talk about the plants on the color wheel after a few days.
- Take turns choosing a favorite food on the wheel. Describe it: color, plant part, texture, size, and so on.
- Which color plants did we eat the most of?
- What color are most of the leafy plants?
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