Last updated: 25-09-2025. From web page: Food and nutrition curriculum support.

Ideas for fruit messaging

For 3-4 year olds

Introduction

The key with messaging around fruit (and vegetables) is to spark curiosity and enable children to explore new foods they may not have tried at home. This is best undertaken by supporting children to use all 5 senses (sight, smell, touch, hear and taste).

It is important for adults to role model the exploration whilst looking at a new fruit at each session. Chat to the children whilst doing so and ask open ended questions such as what do you see? what do you smell? Remember there should be no expectation that children should taste until they are ready to do so. Praise and encourage children to explore and try new foods to help build their confidence.

Sharing the health benefits of fruit with children

The following examples show how adults can introduce simple, positive messages about fruit during tasting and play activities, using child-friendly language:

Adult message	>Child message	Activity ideas
We should eat 5 portions of fruit and vegetables each day	5 pieces of fruit and vegetables each day helps keep our bodies working	Fruit sorting: Provide a basket of real fruits for sorting by colour, size, shape, or texture Fruit faces: Children use slices of fruit/veg to make a face on a plate Books, e.g. Oliver’s Fruit Salad; Handa’s Surprise, Avocado Baby, Very Hungry Caterpillar Get children involved in planning and preparing fruit for snack
Fruits and vegetables contain fibre which helps keep our digestive system healthy, and reduce risk of constipation	Fruit helps us have happy tummies	Choose children’s favourite poo stories! Tummy Dance: After tasting fruit, children can put their hands on their tummies and do a little “tummy wiggle dance” to show their tummy is happy Happy Tummy Puppets: Children choose fruits to give to puppets/ toy animals. Each animal responds “That makes my tummy so happy!”
Fruits are great for snacking because they are low in calories and only contain natural sugar	Fruits are a great snack	Talk about favourite fruits to snack on Snack for Teddy: Children choose fruit to give to a teddy / doll for snack time Snack café role play: set up a “snack café” with toys, tills or baskets. Children “order” their favourite fruit snack and serve each other
Fruits contains lots of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants which help reduce inflammation and support our immune system	Fruit gives us superpowers to help us stay well	Use the idea of superpowers to explain that fruit helps us to grow and be strong Craft activity to make / design / colour-in superpower fruits Superfruit capes: Children make simple paper “capes” or badges for fruits (e.g. Super Banana, Mighty Apple) Superfruit story time: Create a story about a superhero fruit that helps a character grow and feel strong
Fruit is an excellent source of fluid, which helps contribute to keeping us hydrated	Fruit is juicy and refreshing	Demonstrate how much fluid you can squeeze out of fruit, but squeezing it using a piece of muslin or thin tea towel. Kiwi would work well for this, as it’s particularly juicy Sensory talk: e.g. “fruit is juicy and helps our mouths feel fresh" Fruit is full of juice that splashes in our mouths Talk about the importance of drinking water

Eating a rainbow of fruits: Linking fruit colours to health messages

Children love colours! These examples show how to link fruit colours to simple messages about our bodies. Use them to spark curiosity, play, and conversation to encourage children to try a variety of fruits.

Colour	Part of the body	Adult message	Child message	Activity ideas
Red (pomegranate)	Heart	Red fruits contain antioxidants such as ellagic acid which may help protect against heart disease and has been reported to help reduce blood pressure and cholesterol	Red fruits are our heart helpers	Talk about why our hearts are important and what their function is
Orange (papaya)	Eyes – daytime vision	Orange fruits contain nutrients including lutein and beta-carotene, which help keep our vision healthy	Orange fruits are our eye helpers	Talk about why we need our eyes Eye spy game Simple scavenger hunt
Yellow (pineapple)	Eyes – seeing in the dark	Yellow fruits also contain beta-carotene, which is a form of vitamin A, which helps our body make the hormones it needs to work well.	Yellow fruits are our eye helpers	Talk about why we need to be able to see in the dark Activity adding googly eyes to card people, and sticking to dark card / paper background to demonstrate seeing in the dark
Yellow (mango)	Skin	Yellow fruits contain lots of vitamin C and beta-carotene, a form of vitamin A, which helps us keep our skin healthy	Yellow fruits are our skin helpers	Talk about what skin does and why we need our skin Use the skin on our hands to touch the different parts of the mango (skin, flesh and seed) and discuss what it feels like
Green (kiwi)	Bones	Contains vitamins and minerals, like vitamin K which help keep our bones strong.	Green fruits are our bone helpers	Talk about why we need our bones. What would happen if we didn’t have bones or a skeleton? Fruit stamping onto printed skeletons or bones using sliced kiwis and green paint
Purple (passion fruit)	Brain	Purple fruits are purple because they contain anthocyanins, a powerful antioxidant, that has many health benefits, including keeping the brain healthy	Purple fruits are our brain helpers	Talk about what we need our brains for, e.g. making decisions, feeling emotions, memory, controlling our bodies Memory game (kim’s game) to demonstrate the importance of memory What fruit did you eat yesterday? (to demonstrate memory recall)

Information to share with parents / carers

Here is some additional information to share with parents and carers about the new fruits their children have tried in your setting. This offers facts, recipe ideas, and simple conversation starters to help families keep exploring these fruits together at home.

Fruit	Additional messages	Recipe ideas
Pineapple	Tinned fruits are just as good as fresh. Tinned pineapple in natural juice is a great way to include more pineapple in your diet	Cheese and pineapple cubes on sticks Add pineapple to stir fry
Mango	Dried fruits also count towards your 5-a-day, but should only be included at a mealtime. Dried mango is a great option for packed lunches.	Add fresh mango in a chicken curry
Passion fruit	-	Add passion fruit to scotch pancake mixture or to make breakfast muffins.
Kiwi	We often forget to add fruit in at breakfast time. Why try adding some chopped fruit into porridge or wheatbisc? Kiwi fruit would work well for this	Add kiwi to natural yoghurt Add kiwi to salads or salsa
Pomegranate	-	Add pomegranate seeds into a side salad Add pomegranates into yoghurt
Papaya	-	Make ‘papaya boats’: Slice papaya lengthways into a wedge shape, scoop out the seeds and add yoghurt and other small fruits (like berries) to decorate. Children can even add a sail by decorating a piece of paper and attaching it to a cocktail stick

Continuing the conversation – questions to discuss with child

Use open ended questions and activities to support the children’s experiences such as:

What does the outside of a pineapple feel like?
Start a sticker chart to count how many fruit portions you and your child eat across a day
What sound do you hear when you bite into it?
If this fruit was a superhero, what would you name them?
What do you think is inside this fruit before we cut it open?
What does the fruit look like inside, and what does it feel like in your mouth?
What does a kiwi fruit feel like?
How does it smell?
What words would you use to describe what papaya feels like when you eat it? It is soft like butter? Sweet and juicy like melon?