Juicin' with kids

As a mom and a preschool teacher, I want to make sure the kids in my care are getting healthy snacks. The other day, I took my juicer and fruits and veggies to school with me. Juicing would be our project! I wasn't sure how the kids would react or how open they would be to drinking their recipe. They LOVED being able to prepare the fruits and vegetables as well as pushing the button to start the juicer. They even enjoyed helping cleaning the parts. But here's the best part...they LOVED the juice!!! But we had to do more than just make juice and drink it. I wanted to make sure they got everything they could out of this experience. So first, they tasted a small piece of each item I brought and we made a graph of whether they liked the way it tasted. Then we juiced a small portion of that item and graphed whether they liked the taste of the juice. The only juice they didn't like was broccoli juice - they said it tasted sour. Finally we juiced all the fruit and veggies together. Although they said it looked "weird" because it was a brownish orange color, they loved the way it tasted! They drank what I gave them and asked for more. They even wanted to share the juice with kids from the other classes.
What we juiced: strawberry, blueberry, carrots, grapes, broccoli, apple, pear and nectarine.
Make sure you include children in your juicing. Allowing them to be part of the preparation and making the juice helps them want to be more involved. Remember kids love using kid-safe knives to help cut the fruit and veggies into pieces.