Special Smashed Healthy Lemonade
This activity was a HUGE hit for both students and teachers. Between the minimal cleanup, affordable ingredients, and hands on fun, this will surely be something you’ll be repeating all summer and throughout the year. Doubling as a seed to table science lesson, children can interact with seeds, acids and fresh foods.
Even your pickiest kiddos will enjoy the cold, refreshing taste of this “lemonade” without all of the extra added sugar. Plus, little hands will love smashing and mashing the lemons and watching the juice squeeze out.
What you’ll need:
1 sandwich size ziplock bag per child
2 lemon slices per child (about 5-6 lemons for an average class size)
2 tablespoons of pure honey per child (honey is not meant for consumption for children under the age of 2)
Berries or any other fruit
Directions:
With children watching, slice the lemons into whole, round slices. Make observations and spark discussions. What will be inside? What will it look like? Where do lemons come from? How do they taste? Are they sour? Sweet? Salty?
Remove all seeds. How many seeds did you find? Reserve lemon seeds for sprouting activity below.
Allow children to feel, touch, and taste their individual lemon slices.
Give each child one ziplock bag, helping them to place their lemon slices in the bag, and zip shut very tightly.
Show children how to lay their bags flat on a table, pressing and kneading the lemons until all of the juice and pulp is expelled. Add honey, zip bag shut, and repeat kneading to combine lemon and honey together.
Re-open bags, and CAREFULLY empty the contents into a child safe glass/cup. Fill with about a cup of very cold water (optional: add ice).
Stir the contents well. Add any fruit you would like to, such as strawberries or raspberries, and let children mash this into the lemonade.
Use a straw if available and enjoy!
Worried about all that plastic? So are we! There are plenty of way to reuse ziplock bags and straws! Straws can be washed and re-used for younger children to practice cutting, for building, blowing bubbles, sensory bins, painting, and more!
Ziplock bags can be washed and reused for the following BONUS activity! All you need are some cotton balls, and dried lima beans. (You could also try with lemon seeds!!!)
Check out our free parent download containing 30+ hands on activities for you to engage your children, with STEAM based seed to table activities.
Give our suggestions a try, and let us know what you think in the comments below! Don’t be afraid to pass along and share with friends and family. The healthier we all are, the better!
