02/11/2026
Sugar Awareness Week is a wonderful opportunity to explore healthy eating with children in a fun, positive and playful way!
Why not bring a selection of real fruits and vegetables into your Early Years or School Age Care service this week and see where the children's curiosity takes you?
🍓 Explore with the senses!
Let children touch, smell and examine different fruits and vegetables. Are they smooth, rough, soft or crunchy? What colours and shapes can they discover? Cut some open and explore what's inside!
🍎 Organise a tasting session!
Offer familiar and unfamiliar fruits and vegetables. Encourage children to describe different flavours and textures. Remember, tasting should always be optional!
🔎 Create a Fruit & Vegetable Discovery Table!
Set up an inviting area with real fruit and vegetables, magnifying glasses, weighing scales, baskets and drawing materials. Children can compare sizes, investigate seeds, explore textures and make observational drawings.
🥦 Bring real food into play!
Add vegetables to your home corner, kitchen or pretend shop. Children can prepare imaginary meals, go shopping, sort foods or create their own menus.
🌱 Follow their curiosity!
Where do carrots grow? Why do apples have seeds? Can we grow our own tomatoes? Simple questions can lead to planting, stories, counting, art and cooking activities!
💚 Remember: Healthy eating isn't about labelling foods as good or bad. It's about encouraging curiosity, offering variety and helping children develop positive relationships with food.
✨ Sometimes a simple basket of fruit and vegetables can spark a whole week of wonderful learning!
Looking for healthy meal and snack ideas for your service?
Explore our Meal Planning and Healthy Eating Pack, available from the Early Years Shop!
🛒 https://earlyyearsshop.ie/product/meal-planning-and-healthy-eating-pack/
!!! Always consider allergies, dietary needs and choking risks, with age-appropriate supervision.
