The following activities have been developed in conjunction with: 
Activity One: Citrus Fruit Fill-In (Grades K-1)
The Citrus Fruit Fill-in is designed to strengthen students' phonemic skills by encouraging them to sound out words. As you will see on the activity sheet, the first letters are missing from the list of words. Explain to the students, that before they choose the missing letters from the letter bank on the page, ask them to first guess the initial sound of the words to determine the missing letters. Direct students to rewrite the complete words on the sentence strips at the bottom of the activity page.
Activity Two: Citrus Fruit Sections (Grades 1-2)
Citrus Fruit Sections introduces parts of speech, such as nouns, verbs and adjectives, while strengthening students’ critical-thinking skills and grammar. On the page students will see a Florida tangerine separated into sections representing the different parts of speech. Direct students to fill in the tangerine sections with an example of the part of speech requested—a noun, a verb or an adjective. After completing their tangerine sections, extend the activity by having students use each word to write complete sentences.
Activity Three: Citrus Fruit Counters (Grades K-1)
Citrus Fruit Counters will enhance your math curriculum as students use fresh Florida citrus fruit to help them solve math problems. Direct students to solve the equations on the page. The illustrations will provide visual examples for students to use when adding and subtracting. If you have oranges, tangerines and grapefruit in the classroom, pass them out to students to use as math "counters."
Activity Four: Citrus Fruit Shopping (Grades 1-2)
Citrus Fruit Shopping is designed to strengthen students’ math skills with word problems that feature the prices of fresh Florida oranges, tangerines and grapefruit. Direct students to answer the word problems on the page. The illustrations will provide visual examples for students to use when adding and subtracting. If you have oranges, tangerines and grapefruit in the classroom, pass them out to students to use as math "counters." For an additional visual, provide students with real coins (or paper coins they can cut out) to use to help solve the equations.
Extension Activities
- Fill your classroom with the sweet smell of fresh Florida citrus fruit with this quick and easy recipe for making your own citrus fruit potpourri:
- Add three cups of water to a medium-sized saucepan.
- Grate the peel of a Florida orange, tangerine and/or grapefruit (to your liking) into the water.
- Cut the grated Florida citrus fruit in half and squeeze its juice into the pan. Then add the citrus fruit
to the mix. - Add one to two cinnamon sticks or one teaspoon of cinnamon powder.
- Add a teaspoon of nutmeg (optional).
- Keep over low heat to simmer, stir occasionally and enjoy the aroma of fresh citrus fruit.
- Make "citrus fruit stamps" by cutting Florida oranges, tangerines and grapefruit into halves and dipping the cut end into paint or ink. Stamp paper, poster board or cardboard. Or, make a citrus tree by decorating a bulletin board with brown paper for the trunk and green paper for the leaves. Direct students to dip the fruit into orange or yellow paint and stamp imprints on the "leaves" to complete your tree! Please make sure students wear smocks for this activity.
- Have an "Orange Day" with your class! Invite everyone to wear orange and bring in a variety of different orange foods for everyone to taste (i.e., Florida oranges, Florida tangerines, carrots, bell peppers, orange gelatin, orange juice, yams, squash, etc.). Compare all of the orange foods and explain the nutritional value for each. Next, create a bar graph to show the number of students wearing orange shirts, pants, socks, hats and so on.
Activity 1 Answers:
fruit, juice, tree
Activity 2 Answers:
1. Four tangerines should be colored.
2. Six
3. Two
4. Five
5. One
6. Three oranges should be colored.
Activiy 4 Answers:
1. 15 cents
2. 20 cents
3. 15 cents
4. Seven
5. 40 cents
6. 10 cents