Strawberry Hulling

This is a great tool I found at a kitchen store. It works quite well! This work was set up to hull the strawberries and then save them in the fridge to make jam (which we later did). You could also set it up for the snack table or for them to eat a couple strawberries after they hulled them.

Pea Shelling

This was very fun for the summer program!  They first cut the ends off and then simply open the peas and take them out to eat!  I limited this activity to two peas each so there was enough for everyone each day.

 Here is a sweet boy shelling his peas :)

Fruit Leather

We are lucky enough to have a food dehydrator at our school from 'Dry It You'll Like It'.  We made fruit leather with mashed up raspberries with a little honey added to it.  We passed it around circle, let everyone have a turn mashing the berries and then they all scooped out a 1/4 cup onto a piece of waxed paper.

 There were so yummy!  We let them dehydrate for two days and then served them at snack!

Making Trail Mix

This work comes from my friend Sarah- a phenomenal Montessori teacher!

I found these containers at Cost Plus World Market.  They are perfect and a miniature replica of the bulk food containers, found at the grocery stores, only $2.00, and even come with a  tiny scoop!  

I put mini chocolate chips, dried cranberries, and cheerios in them- you can mix it up a you please and gear to your classroom's favorites and/or allergies.

I put numbered labels on the tops of the containers and they scoop that amount of each one into their cup!  Each child is allowed to do this one time daily ensuring we have enough for everyone and we don't run out too quickly.

Orange Peeling

Orange Peeling

This is the most simple food prep work I've ever put out on the shelves  and it is so well loved!  We noticed at lunch time that not many of the kids knew how to peel oranges so we thought we'd remedy that!

We just used the satsuma type oranges as they are soft and easy to peel.

We have one glass for the peels and one for the oranges.  

They separate them out, eat as many sections as they please, and share with their friends around the classroom.  The rules are that their their friend has to pick their own piece, the child who is peeling the oranges has to wash their hands before they do the work, and each child may only peel one a day.