Oral Language

Provide real-life examples of the fruit in the book. Gather a bowl of different fruits that appear in the book. Read the title and the author’s name. Look at the pictures on the front cover and name the fruits. Ask your child to reach into the bowl and find a fruit that is smooth or bumpy, round or curved, green or orange. As you read the story, talk about things like the color, shape, texture and where they grow.

Letter Knowledge

Use the title of the book to play a letter matching game. Gather uppercase magnetic letters that spell GRAPES. Spread the letters on the floor. Touch and say each letter in the title and invite your child to find the matching magnetic letter. You might say: 

“This is the letter G. Can you find a letter G? This is the letter R. Can you find the letter R?”

Continue with the remaining letters.

Phonological Awareness

Stand up and cheer! Bring attention to the rhyming words. You might say: 

“Cheer for cherries, tart or sweet. Bananas. Oranges. Peel and eat! I hear words that sound the same at the end. Listen — sweet, eat. These words sound the same. They rhyme. Say them with me — sweet, eat; sweet, eat; sweet, eat.”

At this age, don’t expect your child to master rhyming. Just expose her to the sounds of rhyming words. After many exposures, she will start to pick it up.  

Beginning Writing and Oral Language

Create a recipe and grocery list for a fruit salad. Invite your child to draw a picture of the different fruits he would like to use in a fruit salad. Use his drawings as a grocery list. Cut fruit into small chewable pieces and make a yummy fruit salad with your child. Be sure to talk about the fruits as you prepare them; talk about things like the color, shape, texture and where they grow.  

More to Do

Take a trip to the grocery store or farmers’ market and spend time in the produce section. Choose fruits and make a fruit salad together. Choose familiar fruits or try something new.

Visit a blueberry or strawberry farm and pick your own berries.

Take pictures or draw pictures to make your own fruit book. 

Try going on a Food Hunt the next time you're at the grocery store, or read more about pre-reading milestones for preschoolers 24 to 35 months.