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Healthy eating

Classroom activity: Fruity ‘Very Hungry Caterpillar’ scone pizza

Age range: 5–7 years, Level FS2, KS1

Resources needed: The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle (Picture Puffin), fruit mentioned in the story, baking equipment, recipe and ingredients to make a sweet scone base, individual cards of foods the caterpillar eats in the story – one with the happy looking caterpillar and one of the caterpillar with a tummy ache.

Note: Check for allergies and dietary requirements and adapt the fruit and scone base if necessary. This could also include fruit suggested by the children.

Expected timings: 2 or 3 sessions

Expected outcomes: Talk about healthy eating and different diets, try new foods, share and take turns.

Details of activity:

Introduction: Read the story – the hungry caterpillar together.  Talk about how the caterpillar eats a mixture of healthy foods, which we can eat a lot of, e.g. fruit, and those that are better eaten occasionally or as a treat.

Task 1: Invite the children to take turns to sort out the pictures of the foods. Place those that are healthy next to the ‘happy’ caterpillar and place the others next to the ‘tummy ache’ caterpillar. Talk about how people like to eat different things and how some people have reasons for not eating certain foods, for example due to allergy, culture, religion, etc. Share ideas together about what is healthy eating.

Task 2: Taste the fruit from the story. Invite the children to make a caterpillar pizza to share. Follow a recipe and take turns to make a simple scone dough. Ask the children to share out the dough and then shape their dough into segments, using cutters or hands, arranging them on baking paper so they touch and overlap slightly. Decorate the segments together with the fruit from the story or fruit the children suggest. Bake according to the scone recipe.

Task 3: Talk with the children about how they can share out the pizza so everyone has some to try and can eat it. This activity allows children to be aware of the diverse needs of how they can be met in a setting.