Fruits are Fun to Touch

According to the KENTUCKY DEPARTMENT FOR PUBLIC HEALTH, Kentucky’s childhood obesity rate is 35.3%, the 6th highest in the nation.

Teachers for a Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten classrooms contacted the Boyd County Nutrition Education Program Assistant expressing concern that children in this age group did not know the difference between fruits and vegetables.  The teachers requested a series of lessons using the Organ Annie and The Organ Wise Guys program with an emphasis on fruit and vegetables. The goal was to teach students about how eating healthy foods affects the organs in their bodies and how their bodies work.  Each week the organ characters would be shown to the students as a reinforcement and the characters would introduce the student to a new fruit or vegetable.   Students were given coloring sheets and the  whole fruit/vegetable would be passed around and then samples of the  food would be provided for tasting.

At the end of the series of lessons, 73% of the students improved their responses to recognizing fruits and vegetables.   Several of the children stated they asked their parents to buy them the new food.  One student stated they liked the kiwi because it was “hairy and fun to touch!”