FAMILY TRAITS CHART Use the Family Traits Chart

FAMILY TRAITS CHART Use the Family Traits Chart template as a tool to help students better understand qualities of the featured fruit or vegetable and add to their cumulative knowledge of fruits, vegetables, and nutrition. HOW TO USE IT: The Family Traits Chart can be used in conjunction with these educator newsletter activities: • Taste Testing • Cooking in Class • Botanical Facts This chart may also be relevant after completing the Harvest of the Month Sensory Cloud, when students are most aware of the physical qualities of the month’s fruit or vegetable. After a discussion about the fruit or vegetable’s qualities in Botanical Facts and a taste testing activity, introduce the idea of produce families. This will help identify or reinforce which family the featured fruit or vegetable belongs to (e. g. , root vegetables, stem vegetables, leafy vegetables, cruciferous vegetables, berries, etc. ). Ask students to recall facts and their recorded observations from the already completed activities. Use this previously covered material to brainstorm a list of the already identified qualities about the fruit or vegetable and how it is grown. Keeping these adjectives and facts in mind, ask students to identify other produce items that may be part of the same family as the featured fruit or vegetable. Students can fill in the blank spaces in the Family Traits Chart template with the name and drawings of the family members identified. GET STARTED: 1. Customize the Family Traits Chart template by inserting the family of the featured fruit or vegetable into the center of the map. Add the name and image of the featured fruit or vegetable to a branch on the map. 2. Print one copy per student doing the activity. 3. Distribute charts. Conduct a group discussion to identify qualities and members of the featured fruit or vegetable’s family. Have students fill in family members by writing or drawing them on the chart. ✔ Helpful Hint: If limited on resources to print charts, have students create their own using pencil and paper.

INSERT FAMILY OF THE FEATURED PRODUCE [INSERT NAME AND IMAGE OF THE FEATURED PRODUCE] [Leave blank for student to fill in] [Leave blank for student to fill in]

SAMPLE CITRUS FRUITS Oranges Mandarins Grapefruit Lemons Limes Kumquats • Skin color: orange • Flesh color: orange or red • Taste: sweet and sour, juicy • Excellent source of: vitamin C • Popular varieties: navel, Valencia, blood -red • Serving ideas: wedges for a snack, fresh squeezed orange juice, peeled and chopped into salads • Skin color: orange • Flesh color: orange-red • Taste: sweet, juicy • Excellent source of: vitamin C • Popular varieties: tangerines, Clementines, cuties • Serving ideas: peeled for a snack, fresh squeezed mandarin juice, peeled and tossed into spinach salads • Skin color: yellow • Flesh color: white/yellow or pink/red • Taste: bittersweet, juicy • Excellent source of: vitamin C • Popular varieties: ruby red, yellow • Serving ideas: chopped and served with lowfat yogurt and granola, peeled and chopped into salads • Skin color: yellow • Flesh color: yellow • Taste: sour, juicy • Excellent source of: vitamin C • Serving ideas: squeezed over fish or chicken breasts and grilled, sliced lemons in ice cold water • Skin color: dark green • Flesh color: light green • Taste: sour • Excellent source of: vitamin C • Serving ideas: squeezed over fish or chicken breasts and grilled, sliced limes in ice cold water • Skin color: yelloworange • Flesh color: yelloworange • Taste: sweet and sour, juicy; can eat the whole thing, peel and all! • Excellent source of: vitamin C • Serving ideas: whole as a snack, chopped into salads

SAMPLE WAYS TO EAT CITRUS FRUITS BREAKFAST LUNCH • Orange smoothie with fresh squeezed juice, lowfat milk, and ice • Sliced oranges or grapefruit over salad • Half of a grapefruit • A citrus smoothie with mandarins, lowfat yogurt, and ice • Oranges, bananas, raisins, and lowfat yogurt (fruit cup) DINNER • Tropical fruit salad with papayas, limes, and mandarins • Squeezed lemon juice in ice cube trays • Squeezed lemon over oven-baked catfish • Sliced orange wedges • Grilled rosemary lemon chicken • Sautéed zucchini with lemon and parmesan SNACKS • Smoothie with 100% juice or lowfat milk