Fruit or Vegetable? Basket Game

Fruit or Vegetable? is a gentle sorting game. A fruit or vegetable appears, and your child drags it into the right basket. A friendly voice says its name and children cheer. If it lands in the wrong basket, the voice says “Oh no! Try again” and the food floats back.

How to play the fruit and vegetable basket game

• Drag the food into the Fruit basket or the Vegetables basket.
• Or tap the food, then tap a basket. You can also just tap a basket.
• On a keyboard, press the left arrow for fruit and the right arrow for vegetables.
• Sort 10 foods to fill the baskets for a little celebration, then play again.

For parents: made for you and your child to play side by side. There is no timer, no score to lose and no game over. A wrong basket just means “try again”, with a gentle voice and no buzzer. Nothing is saved and there is no sign-up. The Sound button mutes everything with one tap, and the Reduce motion button turns off the movement and sparkles.

The 20 foods in the game

Fruit: apple, banana, orange, grapes, strawberry, pear, watermelon, pineapple, mango and cherries.

Vegetables: carrot, potato, broccoli, onion, cabbage, peas, cauliflower, lettuce, garlic and beetroot.

We left out foods like tomato and cucumber. Scientists call them fruits, but most kitchens treat them as vegetables, so a child would never be told “Oh no” for a sensible answer.

Ways to take it off the screen

• Sort real food: put a few fruits and vegetables on the table and two bowls next to them.
• Name it together: say the food name at the same time as the voice.
• Talk about colour and shape: “The carrot is long and orange.”
• Keep it short: a few minutes of happy play is plenty.

More to play: visit the Playground, try Fruit & Veg Salad or Balloon Pop Colours, or read our guide to picky eating and autism.