Author: Angela Russ-Ayon
Illustration: still color photography
I Spy with My Little Eye: Fruit,
an Early STEM Experience
Colorful photographs of delicious fruits make this an exploratory experience. Young children can learn to identify fruits and become acquainted with basic STEM terminology and concepts, then expand upon or interpret the terms in different ways. This book is written with minimal text and offers opportunities for observation, scientific discovery, experimentation, and other teachable moments in the garden or the kitchen.
It’s a great addition to any fruit, gardening, harvest, nutrition, food group, or life science theme for parents of young children or preschool and early childhood educators. This is an effective way to get children excited about healthy eating as they identify, learn about, and differentiate between a variety of delicious fruits and their characteristics. Included in this 36-page picture book are fruit facts, a reader’s guide, and suggestions for open-ended inquiry.
Children can interpret some of the concepts using their bodies: stretch their bodies high, drop them low, make a circle with their arms, make a triangle with their hands, freeze in place, or use everyday tools and physical science experiments to express their understanding of STEM concepts.
Related terms & phrases:
Child nutrition, CACFP, National CACFP, National CACFP, My Plate, ChooseMyPlate.gov, eating healthy food, tasting new foods, eating fruits and vegetables, preparing foods in different ways, STEM connections, making healthy choices, nutrition month (March), nutritious food, balanced diet, variety of foods, healthy eating, food pyramid, USDA Food and Nutrition Service, Health and Human Services, SNAP-ED Program, nutrition education, nutrition material, Spanish picture books about nutrition, material de educación nutricional en español.
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Discover creative ways to connect this concept book to a theme, curriculum, activity, experiment, and any other aspects of a child’s life. Give children time, space, and materials to explore fruit on their own. It's as simple as freezing fruit in an ice tray, seeing if fruit will float, or using cookie cutters to shape fruit for a healthy snack.
Bulk Orders: This title is available in bulk for early childhood and nutrition programs, conferences, non-profit initiatives, licensing, or grants that promote healthy eating, fruits and vegetables, gardening, farm-to-table, STEM initiatives, and anti-obesity. Contact the publisher (AbridgeClub.com | Russ InVision Co.) directly for quotes, orders, and discounted pricing.
Each time you read the book, make new discoveries together, beyond what is stated on each page. What do you notice? Look at positions, shapes, colors, textures, sizes, fruit mixed in with vegetables, and the many characteristics of fruit. How does the fruit look different? Why do you think the fruit is that shape? Why do you think fruit is so colorful? There are no wrong answers.
Use open-ended inquiry to nurture a child’s innate curiosity while navigating through the pages.
Included in this 36-page picture book are facts about fruit, a reader’s guide, and suggestions for open-ended inquiry.
Print our shopping list children paste on, stick on, scribble on, or write on.
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Print our shopping list filled with colorful images of fruits and veggies that little ones can circle.
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