OBJECTIVE

Students will observe how cranberries bounce and feel

Students will have fun playing with cranberries

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

What is a native fruit?

How do different plant characteristics help them survive?

How do the foods that grow in a region impact the people and environment in that area?

MATERIALS

• Fresh cranberries
• Toothpicks
• Bowls for cranberries and tooth picks (one per table)
• Optional: cranberry themed book to start the lesson

PROCEDURE

Introduction:

You can start this lesson with a cranberry themed story, use all of the time for cranberry building or start by trying cranberry sauce, juice and fresh.

Activity:

Tell students that they will be building with cranberries today and that they can make any cranberry creation they desire using cranberries and toothpicks. Remind them they are building berries not eating because they are being touched by many hands. Students can work together and independently.

Distribute bowls with berries and toothpicks to each table

 As students build, guide them to notice the texture of cranberries and how they bounce.

Wrap Up/Assessment: 

Have students clean up and sort berries and toothpicks into separate bowls.

Cranberries are fun to eat, learn about and play with! Mention to students that berries will be reused and be fed to chickens, composted or fed to  a worm bin (or do this now as a class) so this special fruit and gift from the earth isn’t wasted!

Variations:

• This lesson could also be a STEM challenge to have students make cranberry rafts that will float. At the end, you can test the rafts in water

• This lesson could also be used to teach shapes and ask students to make different shapes 2D and 3D like rectangles, hexagons, cubes etc.