raspberries

I have a fun way to explore the raspberry life cycle with exciting activities including a yummy raspberry muffin recipe and a couple of free life cycle pages.

Cooking is always a wonderful activity, whatever your topic is. 

Not only are you teaching valuable life skills and spending time with your child as you prepare the recipe together.

Besides, cooking also helps develop reading skills, following directions, math, science, and nutrition as they make a simple recipe.

But we are not stopping with a recipe.

You will find facts to share and more activities like crafts, additional recipes, and even a body scrub to fill out your lesson further.

ABOUT THE RASPBERRY LIFE CYCLE

The first thing of course is following the life cycle of the raspberry.

The life cycle of a raspberry is a fascinating process that begins with a tiny seed.

The seed is planted in the spring, and it germinates and sprouts into a small plant.

Over the summer, the plant grows and produces leaves and flowers.

The flowers are pollinated by bees and other insects, and the fertilized flowers develop into raspberries.

The raspberries ripen in the fall, and they are ready to be eaten fresh or used in jams and pies.

After the raspberries are harvested, the plant dies back to the ground.

However, the roots survive the winter, and the plant will grow new shoots the following spring.

If you are curious about the resource you see pictured I used Food Anatomy which had a great spread on berries and other fruits that goes along well with my free printables.

Be sure to take some time to examine the fresh raspberries as well before you put them in the recipe.

Let’s learn more about the raspberry life cycle with exciting activities and facts.

RASPBERRY LIFE CYCLE FACTS

1. Raspberries are a type of berry that grows on bushes, some berry types grow on trees, others on vines or little plants.
2. In the United States about 90% of all raspberries that are sold come from Washington, California and Oregon.
3. Raspberries are in the rose family, and they are usually red, but can also be black, gold, yellow, or purple.
4. Raspberries are a good source of vitamins C and K, as well as fiber. They are also a good source of antioxidants, which can help protect your cells from damage.
5. Raspberries can be eaten fresh, cooked, or processed into jams, jellies, pies, tarts, and other desserts. Raspberry leaves can be used to make tea.
6. While raspberry bushes are native to Europe and Asia, they are now grown all over the world.
7. They are made up of many tiny bead-like fruits called “drupelets” clustered around a center core. Each of these drupelets contains one seed, with an average raspberry bearing 100 to 120 seeds.

EXCITING RASPBERRY ACTIVITIES

Little fingerprints make the sweetest “I Love You Berry Much” Fingerprint Raspberry Card Idea that can be sent to grandma or anyone else.

Make a Raspberry Puffy Paint recipe using fresh berries then create a masterpiece.

Check out my Fun American Civil War Crafts for Kids and Make Raspberry Jam and learn more cooking skills.

Create a Raspberry Dye Recipe for coloring playdough that is chemical free and a fun way to learn about another use for the fruit.

Kids love fruit roll-ups, but you’re going to really love this natural homemade fruit roll-up recipe that you can make with any type of berry Raspberry Fruit Roll Ups.

Here you will find a step by step lesson on How to Draw a Raspberry for kids.

Teens will love creating their own homemade Raspberry Lemonade Sugar Scrub to use or to gift to friends and family.

Also, look at more berry hands-on activities for kids.

BERRY ACTIVITIES FOR KIDS

• Free Printable Strawberry Notebooking Pages
• How To Make An Easy Ink pot & Quill Pen with Berry Ink
• How To Create A Sweet Strawberry Letter S Handprint Craft
• Fun American Civil War Crafts for Kids and Make Raspberry Jam
• Life Cycle Of a Strawberry Facts and Fun Hand Sewn Felt Strawberry
• Strawberry Unit Study

Finally, look at how to make easy raspberry muffins.

EASY RASPBERRY MUFFIN RECIPE

First, you can use either fresh or frozen strawberries for this recipe, you do not need to thaw the frozen berries first.

You can also freeze your muffins and thaw them for later if you like.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of whole purpose flour
• ½ cup brown sugar
• ½ cup white granulated sugar
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ¾ cup milk
• ¼ cup+ 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 eggs, large
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 ½ cups raspberries

Coat a 12-cup muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray and preheat the oven to 350.

Combine all dry ingredients in a bow l- flour, sugars, baking powder, and salt, until well mixed. 

In a separate bowl combine all the wet ingredients including eggs, oil, milk, and vanilla.

Stir wet and dry ingredients together until just combined.

Finally, fold in raspberries very gently with a spatula until they are throughout the batter, if you mix too much they will fall apart in the batter.

Transfer the batter to muffin tin and bake for 25 minutes until the tops are golden brown.

Take a toothpick and insert into the center if it comes out clean, they are ready.

Allow to cool, if you can wait, and then enjoy your homemade raspberry muffins.