The smoothest banana and avocado smoothie

Due to the success of our banana, blueberry and beetroot smoothie, I decided to sneak a bit of avocado into Bee's diet. Did you know that an avocado is a fruit, due to having a seed, is high in potassium, can be used to substitute butter in baking and high in protein?? For more information on the benefits and uses of avocados Huffington Post has more details.
                                

The end result... yummy banana and avocado smoothie.

Who can play?

Children aged two and above can help cut and measure out the ingredients, however, this depends on their age and stage of development.

What do I need?

• Blender
• Jug/container to store the smoothie
• Glasses and straws
• Chopping board
• Blunt knife
• One banana
• Half an avocado
• One tablespoon of honey
• Ice cubes
• One cup of milk (either cows, almond or goats)
• One cup of coconut water

The ingredients

Safety:
Please be aware that the blades on the blender are extremely sharp. Read the instructions, before use. Adults should operate the blender.
Children should be supervised at all times and ensure that the knife that cuts the bananas and avocado is blunt, so as not to cut skin.

What did we do?
After washing our hands, we set about exploring the avocado. Predicting what the colour was going to be like inside and if it had a stone or not. Bee said it was going to be green and no stone...as you can tell by the look on her face, she was surprised to find one.

Surprised to see a stone in the middle of the avocado

 We removed the stone and washed it. We are planning to grow our own using the stone. For more information on growing your own avocado thehungrymouse.com  has an easy step by step guide.
Next we removed the flesh from the skin and began to slice it.

cutting up the fruit

                                                 

We also couldn't resist a little nibble...well it is healthy after all

Next, we chopped up the bananas and placed them in a bowl.
To begin the blending stage, we added the wet ingredients first to the jug and then the ice and fruit. After a minute of blending it was done. All that was left to do was pour and enjoy! It was seriously the creamiest and smoothest smoothie I have ever made. It was that good we took it to a friends house to share!

What did we learn?

• Communication and language- Talking about the changes they are seeing and what they taste, feel and smell. Listening to instructions.
• Physical development- Fine manipulative skills when cutting etc. Learning about foods that make our body healthy.
• Personal, social and emotional- Joining in with an activity and accepting the help from others when needed. Self help and knowledge of germs when washing hands before the activity.Taking turns
• Literacy- Developing fine manipulative muscles when cutting the fruit (developing grip to hold and manipulate a pencil)
• Mathematics- Measuring the liquids and splitting the avocado in half.
• Understanding of the world- Learning about technology (how the blender works) and temperatures when adding the ice to the smoothie.
• Expressive arts and design- Creating your own smoothie

What could be done next?

• Pour the mixture into ice lolly molds and into the freezer, for a delicious cooling treat.
• As mentioned above, try to grow your own avocado. Children will love watching it grow and you will enjoy not having to buy an avocado from the store (you do have a long wait ahead though to reap this benefit)