I've Got A Lovely Bunch of Coconuts

Mrs. C brought in a coconut this week, and what a great learning experience it was! Unusual fruits and veggies are a great stimulus for dialogue and exploration, and you get to have a wee bite of something new!

First, we shook the coconut to find out what we could hear, and we guessed what was inside:

Some of their ideas:
-milk
-water
-juice
-nothing

Next, we inspected the coconut to figure out how we could open it:

L said the three darker spots on the coconut looked like a face, and suggested we stab it. Good idea! With help, we poked a hole through one of the dark weak spots at the top of coconut. Then, we shook all the liquid out into a cup. K was right about the milk!

We passed the cup around so we could have a wee sniff. According to S, it smells "disgusting."

L, on the other hand, absolutely loved the smell of the milk, and asked multiple times if he could drink it. After getting permission to have only one sip so that others could have a try, he gulped it all back in one fell swoop. That was the end of our coconut milk!

Good thing we still had all the coconut "meat" to get to! We came up with ideas of how we could break open the coconut. Eventually, we wrapped it in a towel and gave it some big whacks with a pair of heavy pliers (I couldn't find the hammer!).

When that didn't quite work, Mrs. C popped the coconut into a shopping bag, waltzed outside and swung the bag against the wall. Voila! Worked like a charm. We cut up the coconut meat into little bits to try and touched the shell to see what it felt like inside (I didn't get any pictures of this, because we were too busy eating coconut!). Not everyone wanted to try it, but L and Y made up for the rest of them! Y said he likes to suck on it to get all the sugar out. Interesting tactic!

Next week, I'll be bringing in some other interesting fruit to try. Any suggestions?