Sail off to Food Fun
Books to Share
- Cookie Count by Robert Sabuda.
- How Do Dinosaurs Eat their Food? by Jane Yolen.
- What’s for Lunch? by Ann Garrett.
- What’s in Grandma’s Grocery Bag? by Hui-Mei Pan.
- Who Took the Cookies from the Cookie Jar? by David Carter.
Books to Show or Booktalk
- Bee-Bim Bop! by Linda Sue Park.
- Food for Thought by Joost Elffers.
- Little Pea by Amy Krouse Rosenthal.
- Showdown at the Food Pyramid by Rex Barron.
- Today is Monday by Eric Carle.
Bulletin Board
Books are Yummy Good!
Create a scene of an open cookbook with a recipe on the pages. Add pictures of children or animals reading the book and mixing up a yummy treat.
Displays
Books are Food for Thought!
Display books, video, DVDs, and musical recordings about cooking, food, and cookbooks along with cooking bowls, pans, utensils, measuring cups, bags of sugar, spices jars, etc. Scatter some flour around the display so that it looks like some cooking as been done. Wear an apron and chef’s hat to storytime.
Nametags
Spoons
Use the spoon pattern provided to create nametags.
Refreshments
Cookies’n’Cream
Ingredients
- Chocolate chip cookies
- Vanilla ice cream
Directions
Break up a cookie into a small plastic or paper cup. Top with a small scoop of vanilla ice cream and serve immediately. Keep in mind that some children may be allergic to chocolate or be lactose intolerant, so have other cookies and non-dairy ice cream available or alert parents to the ingredients ahead of time.
Jelly Sandwich Fun
Ingredients
- Bread
- Jelly
- Small cookie Cutters
Directions
Prepare jelly sandwiches and cut them in half. Let the children use the small cookie cutters to cut out a shape from the sandwiches. Then they can eat their creations.
Fingerplays
“The Chef” from Simply Super Storytime by Marie Castellano.
Hot Cross Buns
(Traditional.)
Hot cross buns, (Clap hands)
Hot cross buns, (Clap hands)
One a-penny, two a-penny, (Count two fingers)
Hot cross buns. (Clap hands)
Audio Recordings
- “Chili Chili - Hot Hot Hot” on Dream Catcher by Jack Grunsky.
- “Kinds of Foods” on Learning Basic Skills through Music, Building Vocabulary by Hap Palmer.
- “Peanut Butter & Jelly” on A Cathy and Marcy Collection for Kids by Cathy Fink.
Flannel Boards
Five Little Cookies
(Traditional. Cut five cookie shapes from felt, fun foam or paper. Glue small magnets to the back of each cookie. Instead of a felt board, use a metal cookie pan for a flannel board. Hold the pan in your lap. Put all the cookies on the pan and remove them one at a time as you recite rhyme. Use a potholder and spatula as props. Be sure that the pan is not aluminum or the magnets will not stick.)
Five little cookies with frosting galore,
Mother ate one and then there were four.
Four little cookies, two and two, you see,
Father ate one and then there were three.
Three little cookies, before I knew,
Sister ate one and then there were two.
Two little cookies, yum, yum, yum,
Brother ate one and then there was one.
One little cookie, here I come,
I ate that one and now there are none.
Ice Cream
(By Debbie Brightwell Brown. Make one ice cream cone and four scoops of ice cream in the appropriate colors from felt, fun foam, or paper using the pattern provided. Place the cone on the flannel board and add the ice cream scoops on top, one at a time as you recite the rhyme.)
Ice cream, ice cream, icy and round,
Let’s start with chocolate brown.
Ice cream, ice cream, minty green,
The prettiest ice cream I’ve ever seen.
Ice cream, ice cream, vanilla white,
It sure tastes cool and oh, so right.
Ice cream, ice cream, strawberry pink,
It’s the best on hot days, I always think.
Crafts
My Favorite Pie
Materials
- Paper plates or white paper cut in circles
- Pictures of fruit cut from old magazines
- Glue sticks
- Crayons or markers
Directions
Let the children glue pictures of the kinds of fruits they think would make a good pie onto the paper plates or paper circles. Have them color brown around the edges of the circle to make the crust.
Egg-citing!
Materials
- Small squares of construction paper in various colors
- Glue sticks
- White paper cut into egg shape or use an egg shape die cut
- Crayons or markers
Directions
Provide each child with a small square, a paper egg shape, and a glue stick. Let the children glue the egg shape to their square and decorate their egg crayons or markers.
Games and Activities
Shout Out for Healthy Food!
Pick a word such as “fruit” or “pizza.” Show the children a real piece of fruit or pizza, a picture, or a plastic or flannel fruit or pizza during this call and response chant.
Give me a P --- “P”
Give me an I --- “I”
Give me a Z ----“Z”
Give me another Z --- “Z”
Give me an A --- “A”
What’s that spell?
Pizza!
How’s that taste?
Yummy!
Guest Speakers
Invite a pizza chef to show the children how they roll out, toss, and top a pizza. Let the children help to put on the toppings. Have a finished pizza or pizza bites ready to share.
Videos/DVDs/Films
If you have public performance rights, show these videos and DVDs, or segments of them, to the children. Otherwise, display them for home use. Times are indicated for the entire film.
- Baby’s First Impressions, Vol. 10: Food Fun. (32 minutes)
- Food Safari: Lunch. (29 minutes)
Web Sites
Kids R Cooking
www.kidsrcooking.com
This site features a variety of recipes that will appeal to children. The recipes under ‘Creative Recipes’ include recipes for arts and crafts projects such as 'Clean Mud' and papier-mâché.
Professional Resources
Simply Super Storytimes by Marie Castellano.
