Use pineapples to provide your students with a sensory experience in science. Provide children with whole pineapples and magnifying glasses. Encourage children to use both their naked eye and the magnifying glasses to examine how the pineapples look. Cut open the pineapples and allow children to look inside the fruits. They can compare the difference between the outside and the inside of the fruit. Allow children to touch the outside and inside of the pineapple and compare the difference in how the fruit feels. Let them smell and taste the pineapples. Talk about the experience; ask children how it felt to touch, see, taste and smell the fruit.
Use pineapples to increase your students' descriptive vocabulary. After the sensory experience with the fruit, have children create a list of words that describes how the pineapple feels, looks, tastes and smells. Write each of the senses on a piece of chart paper. Go around the classroom and ask each student to provide a descriptive word that relates to each of the senses. Write the words on the chart and explain to children that these words are called adjectives. Explain the importance of this part of speech.
Pineapples can be used to teach math. Instead of using actual pineapples for this activity, you'll want to use pictures or stickers of pineapples, as the real thing can get a bit messy. Write addition problems and have children use the pineapples to represent the addends in the problems and determine the sums. Pineapples can be used to practice subtraction skills by counting out the number of pineapples that is equal to the first number in a subtraction problem and taking away a number that is equal to the second number to determine the sum. Use different colors or shapes of pineapple stickers or pictures to practice sorting and patterning, as well.
Make different types of recipes using pineapples. Select a few different types of pineapple recipes, such as ambrosia and pineapple upside-down cake. Bring in the ingredients and have students help you create the dishes. While creating the foods, discuss the measurements that are called for -- fractions, cups, teaspoons and so forth. Have kids predict the outcome of the recipe. Have them observe the ingredients separately and combined, and talk about how the pineapple changed when added to other items. Of course, follow up the activity by allowing students to taste the creations.