I always loved to visit the farmer’s market with my kids. A vegetable unit is great at any time, but I especially love it when it’s the season to find produce at the farmer’s market.
My family always enjoyed finding fresh versions of our favorite vegetables, such as sweet corn, carrots, beets, and string beans. But we often liked to try a new vegetable or even pick up some fresh flowers to add to our table. It’s awesome whenever you can add activities that will make the most of your farmer’s market experience.
Here are links to Montessori-inspired vegetable printables and activities you can use to add to your family’s farmer’s market experience (or your own gardening experience):
Montessori-Inspired Vegetable Printables
Leaf Vegetable Picture Cards (Image from Montessori Print Shop)
Vegetable Cards (a number of different types available for purchase) from Montessori Print Shop
Types of Vegetables Nomenclature Cards (available for purchase) from Montessori for Everyone
Free Vegetable Nomenclature Cards from Montessori for Learning
Free Fruit and Vegetable Matching Cards and Free Vegetable Match Game from The Helpful Garden
Free Montessori Botany Materials for a Gardening Unit (my roundup post)
Humans and Plants (Botany Elementary Sample Lesson), including activities for exploring fruits and vegetables from North American Montessori Center
Montessori-Inspired Vegetable Activities
Montessori-Inspired Food Art (my post using fruits as examples, although vegetables could be used)
Potato Mashing (Photo from The Moveable Alphabet) – blog no longer available
Montessori-Inspired Gardening Unit (which includes activities related to vegetable gardens)
Sensorial Activity: A Basket Full of Fruits and Vegetables from Montessori DOTNET
Fruit and Vegetable Sorting by Kylie from How We Montessori at Modern Parents Messy Kids
Discovering the Butternut (squash activities) from Caminem Plegats
Fantastic Fruitty Fruit (and Veggies Too)! (with ideas for encouraging kids to eat healthy foods) from Kathy’s Montessori Life
Healthy Food Activities the Montessori Way from Slide Share
Seed Collection Matching (Photo from Little Schoolhouse in the Suburbs)
Seed Collection Matching from Little Schoolhouse in the Suburbs
Gluing a Vegetable Rainbow by Julie from The Adventures of Bear
Gluing a (Vegetable) Rainbow from The Adventures of Bear
Guest post: Loving the Greens – Montessori and Dogme, Guest post: Loving the Greens – Montessori and Dogme Part 2, and Guest post: Loving the Greens – Montessori and Dogme Part 3 (posts showing a vegetable unit) by Yitzha (Icha) Sarwono at The Teacher James
I’d love to hear if your child has some favorite vegetable activities (or favorite vegetables)! 🙂
UPDATE: I also have a Montessori-inspired fruit unit!
My latest healthy food post (with lots and lots of resources) is Free Eat a Rainbow Printables and Montessori-Inspired Activities!
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I love teaching about healthy eating and vegetables grown on the farm. Great post. Here is a children’s book about a visit to the farm market: http://www.brennaphillips.com/video-reading-of-a-farm-book-for-preschool-classes
Thanks so much, Brenna! And thanks for sharing that great book to go along with a trip to the farmer’s market! 🙂
This is wonderful, Deb. Mikko’s interested in gardening, so I could use some learning activities. I especially love the seed matching one!
Thanks, Lauren! It’s awesome that Mikko is interested in gardening … a seed matching activity should be great for him! 🙂
Deb, your posts are always so informative – and this one is no exception. I especially like the food art and the vegetable rainbow.
Thanks so much, Andrea! I’m a real fan of food art, and I love the vegetable rainbow, too! 🙂
I love the matching seeds to veggies activity! I’ve added you to my list on today’s post 😉
Thanks, Dionna! I always love matching seeds to vegetables, especially when it can be done along with gardening or a trip to a farmer’s market. I really appreciate your adding my post to your list! 🙂
What a wonderful set of resources I will be looking at these when I have more time. Thank you so much for sharing. I am lucky that my children love vegetables and we grow some, but it is always good to have other ideas for learning.
Thanks for your comment! It’s awesome that you’re able to grow some vegetables … and it’s awesome that your children love vegetables! 🙂
Such a good resource for activities! Thank you!
Thanks so much, Luschka! I had fun finding so many vegetable printables and activities online! 🙂
Love all these ideas!!!
Thanks so much, Gretchen! I always have fun with the Carnival of Natural Parenting posts! 🙂
Awesome ideas for getting kids involved in healthy eating! thanks! I’ll be bookmarking this one 😉
Thanks for your kind comment, Megz! I appreciate your bookmarking my post! 🙂
Fantastic ideas to help promote healthy eating and a healthy lifestyle.The seeds would also be great for some Spring Time learning. My goodness I will have to Pin and bookmark this post to go through all of the links you have put together. What a fantastic resource! Thank you for linking up to my Enchanted Thursdays Blog Hop.
Thanks so much, Jill! Spring would definitely be a great time for a vegetable unit, too! 🙂
This post was amazing. I love the idea of putting seeds in those cute shakers, and the food prep ideas look awesome. I’m saving this post – thanks for the roundup!
Thanks so much for your kind comment, Heather! And thanks for saving my post! 🙂
Love it, love it, love it! I’ve been working on composting and creating an “edible garden” with my son over the summer. (And we are so blessed to live in a town with family-style farms and organic, locally-raised and grown food!) I am reading some great foodie books (for moms!) about urban and family farming, and being a locavore/localvore… (Plenty by Alisa Smith and J.B. Mackinnon; Dirty Life: On Farming, Food, and Love by Kristin Kimball; Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver; and Food and the City by Jennifer Cockrall-King.) By the way, Deb, how did you get 160,000 followers on Pinterest! Wow! Way to go! Couldn’t have happened to a nicer blogger!
Thanks so much for your very sweet comment, Lisa! I LOVE what you’re doing with composting and gardening!
I can’t figure out what’s going on with Pinterest. I’d love to have as many followers as it says I do, but I think it might be going a bit crazy! 😉
I love the idea of the vegetable rainbow with paint samples and pictures of fruits and vegetables. That is so clever. Instead of the Farmer’s Market, we’re part of a farm share. My toddler loves to help me unpack the fruits and veggies and ever since we did this pea activity – http://jennifischer.blogspot.com/2012/05/p-is-for-peas.html – he gets extra excited when we get a vegetable that needs to be shelled. I love that he learns about so many different types of vegetables as the seasons change. I love this website that helps people find CSAs (farm shares) and farmers markets near them. http://www.localharvest.org/csa/
Thanks for your comment, and for sharing your great activity, Jen! I’m adding your link to my post. It’s wonderful that you’re helping your son get excited about healthy foods! 🙂
That’s a great list of things to do with wee ones involving vegetables. Tristan has been asking about seed-why they’re on the outside of strawberries, why you can eat pumpkin seeds but not cherry seeds; what colour are various seeds, so this will be useful!
Crystal
Thanks, Crystal! It’s awesome that your son is so interested … the perfect time for these sorts of activities! 🙂
thanks for sharing your ideas, these vegetable plants might be good to plant during summer time. Love your tips, keep sharing more and also share some ideas on the vegetable gardening for winter.