During one lunch while having oranges, Finley and Hannah mentioned to Nidya that there was some water dripping out of the oranges. Nidya explained that that was the juice and that the juicer the orange the more, “water,” they would drip when eaten. The girls then shared how much they liked it. On the other hand, Antonio and Hugo shared with the table that they didn’t like oranges and they threw theirs in the scrap bucket. At that moment, Nidya wondered if this was because the texture or the flavour of the oranges.
This gave her the idea of making orange juice with the children to see if by changing the presentation of the oranges they would like the taste. Nidya brought in some oranges, an orange squeezer, a lemon squeezer, a pitcher, a knife, and a tray to make some fresh orange juice.
We started by washing the oranges. Colin F. and Rowan were the ones in charge of this part. At the beginning they were a little puzzled looking at Nidya as they didn’t understand her request of washing the oranges, but after a quick demonstration they understood and made sure to clean every single one in the bucket.
Once at the table, Nidya asked the children if they could name the items on the table. “Oranges,” was the first and only answer she got from the children.
“What is this?” Nidya asked as she pointed to the pitcher. There was silence for a while until Nina replied, “a cup.” “Well, this is bigger than a cup,” Nidya pointed out, but there were no more suggestions.
Then we moved to the lemon squeezer; children had turns examining the tool and once again Nina was the first one to come up with an answer. “A scooper,” she said. This wasn’t too far from reality as apart from the little holes on the bottom it looked indeed as an ice cream scooper. There were no responses for the orange squeezer. Nidya took some minutes to explain each unfamiliar item from the table and then children were ready to go hands on.
“What do you think we need to make orange juice?” Nidya asked. This seemed like a question with an obvious answer, but the children went quiet.
“Do we need apples?” Nidya asked.
“Noooo,” the children replied.
“Do we need pears?” She asked again.
“Noooo,” they answered.
“Then what do we need?” Nidya asked one more time. It seemed that the previous questions helped Colin B. to understand as he was the first one to respond, “oranges.”
“What should be done first?” Nidya inquired.
“We cut,” Finley and Nina suggested.
Nidya cut the first orange in half following the girl’s instructions and then asked what she should do next. As the table went once again quiet, Nidya explained that one way to get the juice out was by squeezing the orange with our hands. Each child had a turn using their fine and gross motor skills to get some of the juice out.
“I see some juice coming out,” Rowan and Fox exclaimed when Colin F. began to squeeze half of the orange.
“It is too hard,” Rose and Birdie concluded after having their turn while Zander found the perfect way to hold the orange and how to apply the force to get a lot of the juice out.
After all the children at the table had a turn squeezing the oranges with their hands, we moved to test the first tool, the orange squeezer. Nidya demonstrated how to place the orange properly before applying any force. Once again, each child had a turn.
“There is more juice coming out,” Hannah pointed out as Finley had the first turn. Charlotte wasn’t sure how to push down the orange with both hands and also hold the orange squeezer at the same time in order to keep it in place, so Eliya helped her by holding the squeezer for her. The orange squeezer seemed to work better than our hands and soon we started to see a good amount of the liquid in the container. We then poured it in the pitcher and continued to test our last tool, the lemon squeezer.
Nidya shared with the children that because this wasn’t actually made for the oranges, we would have to cut them into smaller pieces for them to fit inside. This tool seemed to be children’s favourite. They only had to squeeze the handles together to get the juice out.
Antonio and Hannah decided to stand up to make sure they could apply the necessary force to squeeze the orange while the other children stayed on their seats.
After all that tool testing and turn taking, our pitcher was finally filled up with enough juice for us to try. Everyone got a paper cup with some juice to taste. Nidya offered some to Mary and after she had a sip she asked if we had added sugar to the juice to which children who were part of the making and knowledgeable about the process replied no.
The orange juice experiment was a success. “I like it,” was the general response from the group, and they all asked for seconds.
The children had the opportunity to try the oranges in a different presentation and those who had previously said that didn’t like them were able to taste their sweetness through just their juice.
