The Rainbow Fruit Salad

The teacher shows a fruit and children look around the space for a beanbag of its color (red strawberry, yellow banana, green pear, orange orange, purple grape) to add to the class’s big salad bowl. It works on moving with a goal, telling colors apart and teamwork to make a fruit salad together.

How to play

1. In a circle, look at the cards and match each fruit with its color; the beanbags are spread out on the floor (2 min).
2. The teacher shows a card, say the strawberry, and everyone finds a red beanbag and carries it to the big basket in the middle (3 min).
3. Change how you travel: hopping on one foot, tiptoeing, crawling, or walking slowly backward (3 min).
4. Stir the salad: everyone around the basket circles one way and then the other, moving the arms like a giant spoon (2 min).
5. Serve the salad: each child takes out a beanbag, names its fruit and puts it back on the floor (2 min).

Rules

• Pick up only one beanbag at a time.
• Carry the beanbag in your hand and place it in the basket, no throwing.
• Every fruit is welcome in the salad.

Variations

Adaptations

• Limited mobility: bring the beanbags within reach and give the child the job of stirring the salad with a hoop or scarf.
• Autism: group the beanbags by color so the search is more orderly.
• Visual impairment: use high-contrast colors and a different texture of beanbag per fruit, with a classmate to help.

Learning goals

• Travel in different ways toward a goal.
• Recognize colors and link them to fruits.
• Work together on a shared task.

Equipment for a class of 25

• Colored beanbags: 40
• Large basket: 1
• Fruit picture cards: 6

Teacher tip

Talk about fruit by color, smell and taste, never as “good food” versus other food. Beanbags should be made of thick, well-sewn fabric with no seeds that could leak out.

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