Lake 1

Mary Lake.
Professor Westfall
Lesson Plan
1 December 2018

Activity Name: Berries.

Approximate Length of Experience: 20 minutes.

Age and Number of Children: 12 children, ages four to five years old.

Goal: To learn about different varieties of berries.

Domain: Cognitive.

Content:
Fact: Strawberries are the only fruit with seeds on the outside.

Vocabulary: Seeds, red, tiny, hard, edible, produce.

Fact: Blueberries are one of the only natural foods that are truly blue in
color.

Vocabulary: Sweet, color, blue, delicious, crop, native.

Objectives: Participation in this activity will increase the child’s ability to

1. Name differences in berries, e.g., color, size, and taste.

2. Name things that can be made with berries, e.g., blueberry muffins, four-berry
smoothie, mixed-berry cobbler, strawberry pie, or berry sherbet.

Materials: Mixed-berry creamsicle recipe, 13 popsicle molds, 13 popsicle sticks, 2

cups orange juice, 1 cup half and half, enough fresh strawberries and blueberries to
make the berry creamsicles and enough for each child to have 1 strawberry and 1
blueberry.
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Procedure: Begin the lesson by talking to the children about the different kinds of
food that can be made with blueberries and strawberries e.g., blueberry muffins,
strawberry waffle, or oatmeal with strawberries and blueberries.

Next, give each child a strawberry and blueberry and ask these questions:
“Can you name something that is different about the strawberry and blueberry,
e.g., color, size, or shape?” (divergent)
“Can you name something you can make with your fruit, e.g., something named in
the beginning of the lesson or something you remember eating before?” (evaluative
or memory)
If no reply, “Can you name any kind of food that contains berries, e.g., blueberry
muffin or strawberry jelly?” (memory)
“Can you name something the two berries have in common?” (convergent)
“Can you name a different kind of berry other than strawberry or blueberry, e.g.,
raspberry, boysenberry or huckleberry?” (divergent)

Instruct the children that we are going to make something that we can eat and
enjoy by combining our strawberries, and blueberries along with a few more
ingredients and make mixed berry creamsicles. Ask the following question:
“Who wants to help make our treats?”
1. Have each child take a popsicle mold and popsicle stick and put some
strawberry slices and blueberries in the popsicle mold.
2. Using a small plastic pitcher with a pouring spout, have the children fill their
popsicle molds with liquid and insert popsicle stick.
3. Explain that it will take a few hours for the popsicles to freeze so I have made
some at home which we will eat and enjoy now.
4. For a bonus, they can enjoy the popsicles they made the next day at snack time.

Evaluation: The children each had a strawberry and blueberry. I first asked them
if they could name any kind of differences between the two berries? One child said
that the one berry was blue and the other was red. Another child said the blueberry
was much smaller than the strawberry. Somebody else said I was going to say the
strawberry was bigger than the blueberry. Somebody, mentioned that the outside of
the strawberry was rough and that the outside of the blueberry was smooth. I then
said that the rough things that were on the outside of the strawberry where the
strawberries seeds, and that they were the only berry that had the seeds on the
outside of the fruit, and that for the blueberry the seeds are on the inside.
Somebody else mentioned that the strawberry had something green on it so it was
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two colors green and red, Somebody else pointed out that the little seeds were a
different color so we all agreed that it was three different colors that made up the
strawberry, and the blueberry was just one color. I then told the children that the
blueberry is the only naturally blue food. One child said they have different names.
Another child said the blueberry was round like a ball and the strawberry was not
round. Some of the children answered with the same, if not very similar, answers.
There weren't very many more things significantly different about the two.

Next, I asked the children what kind of food you can make with your berries? I
reminded them that we talked about some different foods in the beginning of our
lesson and that if they could remember those, they could use that answer or if they
had something that they knew of they could certainly say that. One child said that
when they eat their pancakes, they have strawberries on them, that caused another
child to remember the strawberry waffle. Another child said they have peanut
butter and jelly and that the jelly is made with strawberries. Somebody else
mentioned that they had strawberry ice cream and somebody chimed in that they've
had a drink that's made with strawberries, milk, and ice and it's called a strawberry
smoothie. One of the children remembered that we mentioned blueberry muffins at
the beginning. I said they could cut up strawberries and put them on top of a lot of
different foods like, ice cream, frozen yogurt, French toast, yogurt, cottage cheese,
angel food cake, cheese cake, and also put it in Jell-O or cold cereal, and my
favorite way to eat them is cut up in a bowl with lots of other fresh fruits.

Next, I asked the children if there were any things similar about the two berries.
One child answered that they both had the word berry in them. And with that,
somebody else said they’re both berries. Another child said they both tasted
delicious. There weren't very many things similar about the two berries so I moved
on to the next question. I ask the children if they could name any other type of
berry? One child said their mom liked raspberries but hadn't tasted them. Not too
many of the children knew names of other berries so I took that time to go ahead
and introduce them to some new berries. I said there were blackberries, goji
berries, huckleberries, boysenberries, gooseberries, lingonberries, elderberries, and
marionberries. There are other berries, and I had just named some of them. Next, I
instructed the children that we were going to make something that we could eat
and enjoy with our berries by adding in a few more ingredients. We were going to
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make creamsicles and I asked the following question: who wants to help make our
treats? All of the children very much wanted to help make the treats. I had already
cleaned the blueberries and strawberries and I had cut the strawberries into slices. I
instructed the children to take a popsicle mold and a popsicle stick each. I
instructed the children that we were going to make creamsicles with the
blueberries, strawberries, orange juice, and half and half and that each child would
need to take some strawberries and blueberries and put them into their popsicle
molds. After the children had strawberries and blueberries in their popsicle molds,
I then had them take turns pouring the milk and orange juice mixture into their
popsicle molds to the top and putting the lid on the mold and inserting the popsicle
stick. I then instructed them that it would take a few hours for them to freeze in the
freezer. I let them know that I had made some last night and had them for us to
enjoy today. We could enjoy the ones they made today, after lunch tomorrow and
so with that I put the popsicles aside that needed to go in the freezer and passed out
the popsicles that were frozen and we enjoyed them as we ate them, we talked
about types of food that we might like to try with berries.

What Next: If this lesson goes well, then, the focus on the next lesson will be with
a different kind of fruit. After we work through the different types of fruit, we can
move into vegetables, nuts, and grains. Then we can work on healthy food choices,
e.g., anytime snacks (fruit or another healthy choice) vs sometimes snacks (potato
chips or cookies etc.).

Evaluation of appropriateness of the category (type) of questions used:

I do think my questions were appropriate. I think they were thoughtful and were
not open ended. I think I used the categories correctly and had a good amount of
questions.