Regie Rainbow

Each year we participate in the Regie Rainbow program.  This is a favorite of mine, as I love food and cooking!  The children really enjoy it as well.  The purpose of the program, which is sponsored by the National Kidney Foundation, is to promote healthy eating and lifestyles.  Each week, Regie explores a new island and tries new foods.  He starts at the Island of Red, and moves through the different colors of the rainbow.  We share a new book with Regie's adventures, and then the children have the opportunity to sample a new fruit an vegetable.  We also plan lessons which involve sampling a new food, or cooking.  Next week will be our last week of sampling new foods, but we plan to continue to explore different cooking explorations with the children for the remainder of the school year.

Here is a list of the foods we have sampled

Red : Blood Oranges and Tomatoes
Orange: Mangoes and Sweet Potatoes
Yellow: Star Fruit and Yellow Peppers
Green: Green Apples and Broccoli
Blue/White/Brown: Dates and Cauliflower
Purple: Plums and Purple Carrots

The children, for the most part, were willing to try the new foods.  We have a few adventurous eaters that have enjoyed most of the foods.  Majority of the children would try a bite or two, but did not eat all of the samples.  While the samples might not have been interesting, the children were excited to use different utensils for cooking and cutting.  We use rounded, blunt edged knives with the children, so they are safe for small hands to work with.  The children are starting to master the motions needed to cut different foods.  When we would bring out the tools for cooking, the children would flock to the table to join the exploration.  Through these explorations we have teaching the children self help skills, as well as independence.  We are trying to foster an interest in new foods, and encourage the children to try new things.  In the Spring, we hope to continue this interest in healthy eating by adding some fruit and vegetable plants to our school garden.  We are excited for all of our future cooking adventures!

Tasting the orange peppers!

Mmmm tasty!

Not too sure about the green beans, but trying them out anyways

Green beans can be tricky to cut

We LOVED the pineapple.  Each child had their own way of cutting the fruit

The cantaloupe was a hit!

Cutting up the red potatoes

Everyone is so focused on their work!