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With the Summer holidays
looming and children at home, parents need to plan lots of fun activities
to keep their children occupied. The Mango Association has gone
back to basics and has come up with a great activity that is enjoyable
and healthy!
Making a mango hedgehog
Making animals out of fruit is lots of fun and enhances children's
creativity. It is an opportunity for children and parents to spend
time together and learn about an exotic fruit. Spiky the mango hedgehog
is easy to make if you follow the steps below:
The easiest way to make
Spiky is to buy a ripe mango which should be soft to the touch.
(You may want to buy a couple incase the first attempt goes wrong!).
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- Firstly slice
the mango lengthwise cutting just above the seed (this is
the fibrous centre that runs down the middle of the fruit).
Curve your knife around the seed and repeat on the other
side.
- Score
the fruit flesh in a crisscross pattern (forming cubes).
Be sure not to cut all the way through to the skin of the
peel. Repeat on the other half if you want two hedgehogs.
- To form the
hedgehog shape bend the peel backward pressing on the skin
side. Use currents for the eyes and a raspberry for the
nose.
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Mango competition
The Mango Association is looking for a new look for Spiky the hedgehog
and would love children under the age of 10 to send in photos of
her with a new outfit on. It could be a favourite TV character or
anything that your children think would suit her. She is quite a
tom boy so doesn't mind if it is a male costume!
The outfits that Spiky
likes the best will be posted on The Mango Association website -
www.mad4mango.com.
Her favourite one will be invited to go to St Tiggywinkles which
is a hedgehog hospital in Buckinghamshire.
Health benefits
The 5 a day campaign suggests that we all eat at least five portions
of fruit and veg a day but apples, oranges and carrots can get boring
for adults and children alike. The Mango Association encourages
children to vary their fruit by tasting mango which they probably
would not have otherwise eaten. Half a mango counts as one fruit
portion so enough for all the family and they are packed full of
vitamins, minerals and anti-oxidants. One mango contains almost
the recommended daily intake of Vitamin C.
With child obesity dominating
the news at the moment this is a healthy activity that is encouraging
children to eat fruit - one of the recommendations made by the recent
House of Commons Health Select Committee.
President of the Fresh
Produce Consortium, Alan McCutchion comments: "Telling people that
eating fruit and vegetables stops them dying does not do any good
- we have to promote fruit and veg as fun and cool to eat or even
as an indulgence."
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