Published January 26, 2026 Written by [email protected]

Early years activity: Fruit faces

This fruit faces activity introduces young children to a variety of fruits in a fun, hands-on way, encouraging them to explore healthy foods through play. By creating ‘fruit faces’ children can develop positive attitudes towards healthy eating, practise fine motor skills and learn the names, colours, weights and textures of different fruits. This activity also supports social interaction and communication as children talk about what they are making.

Fruit faces activity learning aims

Recognise and name different fruits
Understand that fruit is a healthy food choice
Develop fine motor skills
Explore mathematical concepts of shape, size and weight
Express ideas and feelings by creating faces and talking about their work.

Resources you will need for this activity

A selection of fruits
Plain rice cakes, pancakes, or slices of apple/pear as a base
Child-safe knives
Plates or chopping boards.

Fruit faces activity outline

Wash hands together with the children and explain why it is important to have clean hands before preparing and eating food
Sit with the children and show them the different fruits. Talk about their names, colours, weights, sizes, smells and textures. Ask questions such as, “Which fruit do you like?” to encourage communication and engagement
Explain to the children you are going to prepare the fruit for eating. Together, wash the fruit and support children to cut softer fruits using child-safe knives
Explain that they can use the fruit to create their own fun fruit faces, using the rice cakes/pancakes as the outline of the face. Encourage them to choose their fruits and arrange them as they wish. Offer encouragement and help where needed. You may wish to have photos of ideas for children to copy or refer to, if they are uncertain how to create the features
Tasting time – enjoy the fruit faces together, encouraging children to taste the fruits they have used
Talk with the children about how fruit helps our bodies grow strong and healthy, reinforcing positive messages about healthy eating.

How to extend this activity

Encourage children to give their fruit face an emotion (happy, sad, surprised). Take photos of the fruit faces to display near to your mealtime areas
Create a simple bar chart showing which fruit was used the most.

NDNA products to support you with this activity

PANCo – Training Programme

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Disclaimer: Activities with children must always be risk assessed, including for allergies or choking. Children must always have adequate supervision. Resources and materials must always be appropriate for children’s age and stage of development.

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