Our babies love the Barney song 'Apples and Bananas' which has  inspired healthy food tasting in the baby room recently which of course included apples and bananas but also other types of fruit and vegetables.
We used two big bowls one for the fruit and the other for the vegetables for the babies to share. We washed and chopped up a variety of fruit and vegetables and placed them in separate bowls. It was a nice day so we set up the fruit and vegetables on our outdoor mat for the babies to sit around and share the fruit and vegetables picnic style. The babies all gathered in a circle around the bowls and started to call bananas or nanas excitedly. The staff started to sing the apple and banana song to the babies while they took it all in. The babies paused and  stared at the vegetable bowl for a few minutes before attempting to try it but once one of the babies took some they all joined in.

The expression on their faces were varied and they all tried some. Sometimes their facial expressions suggested that they didn’t really like some of the food but they continued eating anyway so maybe some of the tastes were just new. It just goes to show the benefits of group work as children took their lead from the others around them. It is so important to introduce a variety of different foods to children from a young age and its great fun too!

Here’s the words to the song to sing with your little ones:

I like to eat, eat, eat apples and bananas
I like to eat, eat, eat apples and bananas
I like to ate, ate, ate ay-ples and ba-nay-nays
I like to ate, ate, ate ay-ples and ba-nay-nays
I like to eat, eat, eat ee-ples and bee-nee-nees
I like to eat, eat, eat ee-ples and bee-nee-nees
I like to ite, ite, ite i-ples and by-ny-nys
I like to ite, ite, ite i-ples and by-ny-nys
I like to ote, ote, ote oh-ples and bo-no-nos
I like to ote, ote, ote oh-ples and bo-no-nos

I like to oot, oot, oot oo-ples and boo-noo-noos

I like to oot, oot, oot oo-ples and boo-noo-noos