Veggie Races

Introduction
Go ahead, play with your food! Here is a fun way to get your kids interested in their vegetables while they think about the best ones to use for racing. This project teaches kids about the different sizes, shapes and textures of vegetables while looking at how different shapes are better aerodynamically to make faster ÒcarsÓ. They can exercise their creative skills as well when adding ÒdriversÓ.


What You Need:
 Assorted vegetables like cucumber, carrot, parsnip, and celery to make veggie cars
Grapes to make drivers

 Other veggie parts to decorate the cars or drivers. Broccoli makes great hair!
¥ Wheels from a craft store or from model cars
¥ Toothpicks or shish kabob skewers for axels
¥ Markers to decorate the veggies (optional)
¥ A slanted smooth surface for the races

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What To Do:
1. Choose vegetables, wheels and axels.

2. Carefully pierce the vegetable with the axel and add the wheels.

3. Decorate the veggie and add grape people or grape headlights.

4. Try to guess which will be fastest and why.

5. Race them down the board!


Variations: To make vehicles for artistic purposes rather than speed, make the tires out of carrot slices, or cucumber or squash slices. They wonÕt be round enough to roll well but they will add great interest to the model veggie car!