- April 4, 2025
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Fifth graders Dailaini Ward, Bella Randall, Zailee Segars-Lopez and Santaigo Olvera discuss what fruits and vegetables they want to use to create turtles while Laura Rowe, a cook at Tara Elementary School, waits to help cut fruits and vegetables for them.
Photo by Liz RamosElvira Ramadani, the kitchen manager, and Laura Rowe, a cook, help the students by cutting fruits and vegetables for students so they can make their creations come to life.
Photo by Liz RamosFourth graders Martin Torres, Wyeth Hudson and Archer Miles are hard at work putting together their display, which features a dolphin, panther and turtle made of various fruits and vegetables.
Photo by Liz RamosA simple, and yet juicy, sea turtle is made out of orange slices and raisins.
Photo by Liz RamosFifth graders Micah French and R.J. Griffis add to their Florida sunset scenery with crushed banana as sand.
Photo by Liz RamosFifth graders Evans Levasseur, Luke Levasseur and Eli Lopez show off their sea turtles. They added fish, which are the raisins, and sharks, which are the gummies, to complete their display.
Photo by Liz RamosTurtles, made out of orange slices and orange peels, are on display.
Photo by Liz RamosFifth graders Micah French, RJ Griffis, Kaitlyn Do and Kinley Chupp have no problem getting their hands dirty as they create their Florida sunset using various fruits and vegetables.
Photo by Liz RamosLaura Campbell, the principal at Tara Elementary School, and Doug Wagner, the deputy superintendent of operations for the School District of Manatee County, take a close look at each team's work while judging.
Photo by Liz RamosA dolphin swims into the exhibit, made from a banana, raisins, a carrot and gummies.
Photo by Liz RamosFourth graders Archer Miles, Wyeth Hudson and Martin Torres attempted to create a panther out of carrots, a banana and a cucumber.
Photo by Liz RamosThis entry uses cucumbers, broccoli and nuts to create a peacock.
Photo by Liz RamosFourth graders Kinsley Ross, Brianna Nguyen, Trinity Miller and Connor Beckley celebrate their third-place finish.
Photo by Liz RamosFifth graders Santiago Olvera, Dailaini Ward, Zailee Segars-Lopez and Bella Randall are thrilled with a second-place finish.
Photo by Liz RamosFifth graders Kaitlyn Do, R.J. Griffis, Kinley Chupp and Micah French celebrate their first place win. They'll move on to compete against winners from seven other elementary schools in the School District of Manatee County.
Photo by Liz RamosTara Elementary School fifth graders Micah French, R.J. Griffis, Kaitlyn Do and Kinley Chupp had no problems getting their hands dirty.
Each of them took smashed bananas, spread it across their tray, and topped it with beans.
The hope was that it would look like sand and scattered shells.
Griffis said his team originally planned to use mangoes for the sand, but mangoes weren't available during the Fruits and Veggie Day challenge Feb. 3 at Tara.
Fourth and fifth grade Technology Student Association and Robotics students were tasked with using fruits and vegetables to create a scene that would fall under the theme of "Florida."
French, Griffis, Do and Chupp added added a Florida sunset using orange slices.They created a crab made out of half an orange, tomatoes and apple slices on top of the crushed banana sand. For the palm trees and bushes, they used celery and broccoli. Their scene was completed with shark gummies.
The team had to make changes from their blueprint along the way because they didn't know what fruits and vegetables would be available.
French said their project turned out better than expected.
While some students decided to make scenery, others focused on creating animals using the various fruits and vegetables available.
Fourth graders Archer Miles, Wyeth Hudson and Martin Torres made turtles, a dolphin and a panther.
Miles and Torres said they decided to make a dolphin to honor Clearwater Marine Aquarium's dolphin Winter, who died in 2021. They used a banana for the body, raisins for the eyes, gummies for the fins and a carrot for the tail.
