Recommended Age: 2 and ½ years and onwards

When the child begins this exercise as a 2 and ½ year old it is reasonable to expect that they may struggle to complete the exercise from start to finish. The young child doing this exercise is building their concentration through a sequence of steps, it will take some time before they are able to confidently and independently complete all of the steps in this exercise from start to finish

Level of Parent Involvement: Medium, the adult must present the activity to the child for the first time, the child may need supervision and guidance until they have had experience with this work

Prerequisites

• The child must have the ability to follow a sequence of steps in order to do this exercise from start to finish

Materials

• Half an orange (for older children you may provide a whole orange and a children’s knife, so they may cut the orange independently)
• A small chopping board to cut the orange
• A citrus squeezer
• A tray to place the materials
• A glass (child sized)
• A sponge for spills

Preparation

• Cut the orange if using halves
• Place the citrus squeezer, chopping board and knife on the tray

Steps

• Invite the child letting them know that you will be showing them how to make freshly squeezed orange juice
• Let the child know that for this activity you both need to wash your hands, accompany the child to the hand washing facilities, providing assistance if necessary
• Show the child the tray with the orange squeezing materials, invite the child to bring the tray to the table
• Once at the table name the materials with the child (citrus squeezer, chopping board etc)
• If working with an older child, show the child how to hold the orange so that they may cut the orange safely in the middle creating two halves
• If working with a younger child using the already prepared halves, show the child the centre of the flesh of the orange
• Place the orange half onto the tip of the citrus squeezer with your right hand, your left hand holds the citrus squeezer’s handle to keep it secure
• Use your wrist to twist back and forth, squeezing the juice from the orange half into the juicer
• Lift the orange half and notice with the child whether all of the flesh has been juiced, letting them know that we must keep squeezing until you can see the white rind of the orange on the inside
• Once you have squeezed all of the juice out of the orange half, show the child where to get the glass
• Pour the juice into the glass and taste
• Take the lid off the citrus juicer and tap any excess pulp into the bin
• Invite the child to juice the other half (it may be helpful if the child stands up and pushes down onto the orange so they can exert more force, helping to squeeze the juice out)
• When the child has drunk their juice, depending on their level of concentration, show them how to take their tray to the sink to wash and dry their dishes

Variations

• If the sink is too high for the child and you do not have a learning tower for the child to stand in, you may set up a large bowl of soapy water and a large bowl of clean water at the child’s table for them to wash and rinse their dishes.
• Juicing other citruses (lemons, grapefruits)
• The child may make juice for family members