I'm not sure if this would be appropriate for your situation, but you could do a prehistoric diorama with a couple of plastic dinosaurs, broccoli trees, carrot sticks river, green peas grass, cauliflower bushes, jicama rocks, etc.

Or look at the designs in Play With Your Food.

Kids like sweet, so carrots, baby peas and colored bell peppers, all crisp and fresh, go down better than bitter, limp and less colorful veg.

PALM TREES

Carrots, unpeeled and washed
Green bell peppers

Cut off the bottoms of the carrots evenly so they will stand up.

With a small knife, make one-inch incisions one-eight of an inch thick randomly around the carrot to create palm tree scales. Place the carrots in a bowl of ice water. The scales will separate from the carrots so they will resemble tree trunks.

Cut the tops off of the green peppers with a zigzag pattern (like palm fronds - use kitchen scissors instead of a knife). Cut a small hole out of the tip of the pepper and attach to the end of the standing carrot with a toothpick.

CARROT and RAISIN SUNSHINE SALAD

This salad is colorful and provides kids with many important nutrients, including vitamin A. It makes a good snack, side dish, or dessert.

1 pound carrots (5-6) peeled and shredded
1/2 cup raisins
1 carton (8oz) low-fat vanilla yogurt
4 to 6 iceberg lettuce leaves

Mix all ingredients together except lettuce leaves in a mixing bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 15 minutes.

Toss again before serving. Serve on lettuce leaves. (Makes 4 to 6 servings.)
*Nutrition info per serving: Calories 126kcal; Fat 1g; Sodium 95mg; Carb 28g; Fiber 3g; Protein 4g; Vit A 310%; Vit C 10%; Calcium 10%; Iron 4%
*Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Calcium and Iron listed as % of daily value based on 2,000 calories

L, you might be best off with the veggie pizzas. I know everyone says make the food look like something else or whatever, but it doesn't work for the Princess. She knows she doesn't like broccoli, she's not going to eat it and she doesn't care whether you call it a tree or broccoli or candy or cover it with cheese, she's not eating it. Ever. As for the dinosaurs, she'd definitely vote to let them eat the broccoli, LOL.

I've had some luck with Bruvver letting him dip veggies in stuff, like ranch dressing. The Princess also hates dip of any kind and won't eat salad dressing.

She will eat some things raw, like carrots, that she won't eat cooked.

Kids are not as easily fooled as adults like to believe, LOL, but she will eat some of the things she grew and picked herself, like potatoes.

Corn seems to be a vegetable that a lot of kids like, as are green beans and usually carrots. You might let them try a corn based dip for baked tortilla chips....

Annie

Spring can't come soon enough here in Maryland.

My dear grandson loves to snack on veggies, especially little tomatoes (the stripped ones are a favorite) as well as strips of red, yellow and orange peppers (green peppers are too bitter) and cucumber strips, but no carrots or celery. Sometimes he likes to dip them in ranch dressing, but mostly he likes to just eat them.

He has them at school every day, but none of his classmates have expressed any interest in his veggies.

Kids like to "graze" when they eat so having platters with an assortment of veggies makes it easy for them, but they are reluctant to try new things, especially mysterious foods.

These foods might become a nice treat, but unless their parents buy and prepare these at home, they won't change their habits.

If you can have the kids help grow (or at least help pick) the veggies, I think that would make a huge difference. Do you have any control over what's planted, or can you grow some stuff in the classroom? There are some neat colored heirlooms, and kids might get pretty excited about eating a purple potato, a white carrot, or a green tomato.

Yes, we have control over what is going to be planted. And yes, we are going to be gardening with the kids over the summer. This "fair" event is the kickoff, but will take place the first week of April (their spring break) and we will be starting various plants from seed for the summer under lights. That will be the main activity. Too early really to be eating out of a garden, but that's going to be happening at the end. This garden will be at a community center that has program for kids, so they will be doing gardening all summer long.

Now I'm thinking maybe a "taste test" booth where the kids can decide what vegetables they would like to plant in the garden. Like have some veggie snack options set up and the kids can taste them and then if they like them, they can plant those kinds of seeds.

I like the idea of some kind of "make your own" thing. I was thinking something that was like a sundae bar, only salad, but a lot of kids might find salad intimidating to eat, but they might sprinkle some corn on a taco or pizza or something like that, or mix some chopped peppers into a cheese spread. Maybe a bunch of different greens to taste for planting.

Will you have access to an oven? How about baked sweet potato fries?

I really like the taste test idea. In my son's school, once a month they do that with many different varieties of the same vegetable and then they write descriptions and critiques of the various veggies or fruits. The kids really seem to like the program.

Also pureed dips like hummus, roasted red pepper, guacamole (avocado and/or green pea versions) with the veggies or tortilla chips.

Lpink: This sounds like a fun AND commendable project!
What ages are the kids? I always felt like the younger ones are more willing to at least try things once!

Some things I found with 4 kids of my own.

They'll eat almost anything they 'make' themselves.
Burritos, salads, tacos, etc.

Choices of WHICH veggie rather than "do you want a veggie" is much more effective.

What they like this week may not be the same as what they like next week! LOL
Not only do their tastebuds change, but it sometimes depends on what their friends said....

Taste tests sound like a good way to go.
You could have decide WHICH peppers to plant.
WHICH tomatoes?
WHAT greens?
Not IF, but taste to determine the variety!

Also, challenges work well. If one of my kids challenged another to eat something (they thought) they didn't like, you can bet your bottom dollar they'd do it!!

Games: Carry cherry tomatoes in a spoon across a finish line and eat it. Give spoon to next person...etc.

Comparisons: Do you like corn or green beans better? Green beans or beets? What is your favorite veggie? They get to vote for one (or two), see which veggie comes out on top!

Do bell peppers taste better cut into large or small chunks?
Are green beans better cooked or raw?
Beets: Pickled or plain?

They have to try them to answer the questions!! They may just do it without stopping to think about it!

If you have a variety of foods, preparation, colors and activities (hands ON!!) you can probably get them involved!

Deanna

Last year we were going to try an activity with tasting apple varieties and have the kids decide which one they like best, and then we found out some people are allergic to raw apples. I thought it was crazy until one of the pre-school teachers told me she was one of those people. Apparently some compound in the raw apples make her get sores on her mouth. So anyway, on that day we went with applesauce just to make it easy. No taste test.

They can't really taste different varieties. We can't get fresh grown varieties of much except maybe potatoes and onions here in April. Not even really potatoes. Actually, there isn't very much variety in vegetables most of the time in the markets, even the fru fru vegetable markets. A carrot is a carrot is a carrot and they are probably all Danvers or whatever that ubiquitous variety is. Hence the soon to be discovered joy of growing your own, but we won't be able to pull that kind of thing off until harvest time. We might be able to try it with at least lettuce--I mean we could do maybe bibb, romaine, red and whatever else looks palatable, all coming from CA or Mexico or who knows where at this time of year.

Ok, L, ya gotta be difficult, huh? ....teasing.......

How about different colored peppers?
Canned beans (different types), then they can learn where the beans REALLY come from.
Favorite veggie still works......even if they're frozen ones for now!

You didn't mention the ages.....

Deanna

My mother never had trouble getting us to eat vegetables....er...except for canned spinach and lima beans.

But, one thing we really liked were radish "flowers" and carrot curls. Cut a radish about 2/3 the way through with a cross hatch, put it into water and leave it in the fridge for a couple of hours or so, and it will "bloom," as the radish soaks up water and gets extra crispy. Thin, long slices of carrots, stuck into a circle with a toothpick and treated the same way will get crispy and stay in a curl. A platter of these plus celery stuffed with cream cheese, canned black olives and pickles was always a part of our "horse-derbies" spread on holidays.

When I was a teen, I babysat a kid who didn't eat veggies much...so I played "Randy and Sandy Chipmunk" with her. She'd eat anything if she could hold it in two "paws" and nibble it like a chipmunk.

L, my son is one of those people. He can't eat raw apples at all, but can eat them cooked. Everytime he eats a raw apple or something with apple in it, his throat is sore for a couple of days.
Lisa