Eat the rainbow

Learning objectives

• Recognise that fruit and vegetables come in many colours.
• Understand that eating a variety of colours gives us a variety of goodness.
• Plan to try a new fruit or vegetable.

Curriculum links

• Science, Year 2“describe the importance for humans of exercise, eating the right amounts of different types of food, and hygiene”
• Health education (primary)“what constitutes a healthy diet (including understanding calories and other nutritional content)”
• D&T, Key stage 1“use the basic principles of a healthy and varied diet to prepare dishes”

Lesson plan

1. Starter5 min
   Ask: what’s your favourite fruit or vegetable? What colour is it?
2. Sort15 min
   Groups sort their cards onto the rainbow sorting sheet: red, orange, yellow, green, purple/blue and white/brown. Some will be tricky (a kiwi is brown outside and green inside!), which makes a good talking point.
3. Talk10 min
   Which colour has the most cards? Which has the fewest? Explain that different colours often mean different goodness inside, so a “rainbow” plate is a good habit.
4. Plan10 min
   Each pupil picks one fruit or vegetable they’ve never tried and writes it on their “I tried it!” chart to take home.

Support and challenge

• SupportUse only five colours and pre-select 15 clearly coloured cards.
• ChallengeDesign a “rainbow lunchbox” using at least five different colours from the cards.