Celebrate September’s Fruit and Vegetable Month in Early Childhood Centres
- bonnykeevers
- Aug 30
- 3 min read
September is Fruit and Vegetable Month – the perfect time for early childhood services to get creative, inspire little learners, and embed healthy eating into everyday routines. Children thrive when they are introduced to healthy food in fun, hands-on ways. By weaving food experiences into play, learning, and community engagement, we can empower children to build positive food habits for life.
Here are some inspiring ideas to help your service celebrate and create meaningful curriculum connections throughout the month:
1. Hands-On Cooking Experiences
Cooking together is one of the most engaging ways to encourage healthy eating. When children participate in food preparation, they are more likely to taste and enjoy new foods. Cooking also develops independence, early math skills (measuring, counting, sequencing), and fine motor skills.
Ideas to try:
Fruit Kebabs: Let children build their own rainbow stick by choosing different coloured fruits.
Rainbow Salad Bowl: Each child brings one ingredient from home (or chooses from the centre’s supply) to contribute to a shared salad.
Veggie Muffins or Pikelets: A great way to incorporate grated zucchini, carrot, or corn into a fun baked snack.
Smoothie Station: Children can choose from a selection of fruits and add a splash of milk or yogurt to create their own flavour blend.
Cooking is also a natural way to weave in language-rich conversations about where food comes from, why it’s important, and how eating a rainbow helps our bodies.
2. Intentional Nutrition Education
Nutrition education can be integrated into stories, games, and discussions, helping children learn important concepts in ways that feel natural and enjoyable.
Ideas to try:
Story Time: Read books like The Very Hungry Caterpillar or Oliver’s Vegetables and extend the learning by tasting some of the foods from the story.
Food Math and Science: Use fruit and vegetables for sorting, counting, weighing, and exploring textures. Cut fruit in half to explore patterns and symmetry.
Art Activities: Try vegetable stamping, rainbow collages, or drawing favourite foods to display in the classroom.
3. Garden to Plate Learning
Children are more likely to taste vegetables they have grown themselves. A garden doesn’t have to be big – even a few pots can provide meaningful learning. Gardening builds patience, responsibility, and an understanding of where food comes from.
Ideas to try:
Grow fast-growing vegetables like lettuce, radishes, or cherry tomatoes that children can harvest within weeks.
Create a herb garden in pots – basil, mint, or parsley are easy and fun to touch and smell.
Involve children in watering, measuring plant growth, and harvesting.
Use produce in cooking experiences to show the full “garden to plate” cycle
4. Engaging with Families
Family engagement is at the heart of creating lasting healthy eating habits. When children see consistency between what they experience at the service and what happens at home, healthy choices become part of their everyday life.
Ideas to try:
Family Recipe Collection: Ask families to contribute a favourite fruit or vegetable recipe from home (photos encouraged!). Compile these into a digital or printed “Rainbow Recipe Book” to share with your community.
Healthy Lunchbox Challenge: Encourage families to involve children in packing a colourful lunchbox for a week. You can display photos of the lunchboxes at the centre for inspiration.
Take-Home Produce Bags: If you have a garden, send children home with a small bag of freshly picked produce to share with their family.
Cooking at Home Connections: Provide simple recipes from your classroom cooking experiences for families to try at home.
Family Food Wall: Create a display where families can share photos of their children eating fruit and vegetables at home, or photos of their cultural food traditions that use fresh produce.
This not only strengthens home–centre connections but also values each family’s unique food culture.
5. Book a Healthy Little Heroes Incursion
September is the perfect month to book our “I Can EAT a Rainbow” incursion! Bring fruit and vegetable education to life through engaging activities, songs, and hands-on experiences. Children learn the importance of eating a rainbow of colours every day and connect the foods they eat to how their bodies grow strong and healthy.
Our incursions:
Align with the Healthy Living component of the curriculum.
Support intentional teaching with engaging, age-appropriate learning.
Provide families with take-home messages to continue healthy habits beyond the classroom.
Fruit and Vegetable Month is more than just a theme – it’s a chance to create lasting, positive change in children’s attitudes toward food. By combining cooking, gardening, intentional teaching, and family engagement, you can build a month filled with colourful, joyful, and impactful learning.
Make your September celebrations even more exciting – book a Healthy Little Heroes incursion today!
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