Handa’s Surprise by Eileen Browne is a lovely, colourful book. It follows the adventure Handa has of taking seven delicious fruits to her friend in the next African village and what happens to them along the way. My children love this book and it has been used to expand their vocabularies of fruit, animals, and colours over the past few years. They never grow tired of it.
One of the discussions that took place during one reading was about the various fruits that Handa has. “What is that?” “What does it taste like?” This provided a nice segway into a little learning adventure of the senses for our family.
We wandered down to our village Green Grocers to see if we could find any of the fruits that were in Handa’s Surprise.
Tristan found the pineapples and took a photo of them.
Kallista was very please with the purchase, and found the page of the book that spoke of the pineapple.
We took our pineapple home and Phil cut it for our dessert that evening. The children enjoyed exploring the prickly feel of the fruit, they guessed what colour it would be on the inside, and they liked the refreshing aroma of the flesh.
Then it was time for them to taste the tangy fruit for themselves. As you can see, they both really enjoyed fresh pineapple once they became used to the tanginess!
This activity was such a hit with our children that we continued to explore some more of the fruit in Handa’s Surprise. Next up was an avocado.
It rolls, it’s soft yet firm. Cool to the touch. Good first impressions! What does it look like inside?
Oh, it’s a different colour! And what a big pit!
Tristan enjoyed examining the pit and asking lots of questions about it.
We made ants on a mossy log with the avocado for a healthy and fun snack!
One more photo is up with the children digging into a juicy mango.
This fruit definitely received the thumbs up from them!
This has been a fun way to learn about not-so-common fruits, animals, culture, and fill our tummies at the same time!
What is your child’s favourite fruit?
For more great ideas see our Books and Book Activity page or see our Multicultural Activities for Kids page where you’ll find all of our multicultural ideas in one place.
