Now I Eat My ABC’s 2.0: Cooking and Literacy Connections

Presented by:

Alison Pascone, Early Learning Librarian

Pierce County Library System

(253) 548-3417

When children read a recipe, they are learning…

  • That pictures read from top to bottom and from left to right, just like words
  • Order
  • Sequence
  • To understand what they see or read
  • When they cook, they follow a recipe by looking at the pictures and doing what they see in these pictures
  • Understanding the pictures will later help them as readers in understanding the words they read
  • To connect pictures with words
  • You can show children the written recipe that the picture recipes came from
  • To follow directions…
  • Which will later help them in all areas of school

Activity Tables FROM THE TRAINING TODAY

  1. Create your own menus – invite children to design and create their own menus
  • Talk with children ahead of time about what their favorite foods are for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snack.
  • Encourage them to draw these foods
  • Can also provide stamps, stickers, pictures from magazines…

OR Create your own picture grocery lists – like the activity above but let children draw the food they buy when they go to the store with their families. Again, provide stamps, stickers, markers, and other art supplies.

  1. Food Vocabulary Chart –

How many words can you think of that have to do with cooking, unique foods, food groups, etc. Together as a large group, brainstorm fancy food words. Write down children’s suggestions and ideas. Post on your wall or bulletin board.

  1. Bagel Faces – see “Bagel Faces” under “Recipes” section later in the handouts.
  1. Underground, Above Ground, or On Trees –

Before playing this game with children, talk to them a lot about where food comes from and how it grows. The library has many books specifically for young children on this topic in the Easy Non-fiction section. Illustrate your point with books, pictures, and real examples of seeds, fruit, vegetables, etc. Make a chart ahead of time with die cuts or pictures from magazines of different fruits and vegetables. As a class, sort where the different fruits/veggies grow – underground, above ground (on a bush or vine), or on a tree.

  1. Favorite Recipes Book – Write down your favorite recipe for cooking with children in the notebook provided on one of the activity tables. Alison will compile everyone’s recipes and send it via email after the class. The “Class Recipe Book” idea from a previous page in these handouts is a fun variation to use with parents – inviting parents to bring in their favorite recipes to share with the children.
  2. Favorite Food Books Table –

Take a look at some of my favorite books related to food that you can share in a circle time with your children. Books will be organized by the age they are best suited for and all of the books can be found on your books list in this handout packet.

Activities for Encouraging Families to Cook with Their Children

  • Every time a child cooks something from a recipe at school, send it home
  • They are now the experts on this recipe and can share it with their family
  • Let parents know that they can include their children in meal preparation
  • Give them a specific task like washing the veggies or fruit
  • Let children also help make the grocery list
  • Ask them “What do we need? Do we have enough eggs, bread, milk, etc.?” Let them check for you.
  • They can also create their own picture grocery list – check your local dollar store (Dollar Tree is great) as they often have inexpensive stickers of various foods!
  • Mealtimes are a wonderful opportunity to have conversations with children
  • Encourage parents to use meals as a time to ask children about their day.

Class Recipe Book

Encourage families to bring snacks to class. You can provide them with a list of snack possibilities to choose from or let them make their own snack. This wouldn’t need to be done very often but once every few months per family, as the families can rotate snack duty! Take a picture of the child whose family brought in the snack standing next to the snack table. Create a simple recipe to go next to the picture of the child with their snack. Put this together into a book to give to all families at the end of the year. Not only is it a great memory book for children, it is also a cookbook for families!

Tasting Table Ideas – SCIENCE IN ACTION!

Set up a table in your room with one or two types of food for children to taste. Over time, make sure to include food that represents all of your children’s cultures.

  • Try introducing foods in different physical states at the same time
  • Yogurt and frozen yogurt are a good example of this
  • Cold cheese sandwich and grilled cheese sandwich
  • Offer 2-3 foods at a time for the purpose of making comparisons. Here are some examples:
  • 2-3 foods from the same food group
  • Foods of a similar shape
  • Foods with similar colors
  • Foods that grow underground
  • Foods that cool you off on a hot day
  • Ask questions that get children describing what they’re eating and comparing and contrasting it with other foods
  • Science Activity: hypothesize about what something will taste like based on its look and smell. Compare predictions with reality. Make a graph with children, charting who liked what.

Orange Juice Taste Test

Invite children to prepare and compare orange juice from concentrate versus fresh squeezed orange juice and hold a taste test. Create a chart showing who preferred which juice and talk about it afterwards with the children. Ask them why they preferred one type of orange juice to another…

  • Try this experiment with other types of fruit juice (lemonade, limeade, grapefruit juice)
  • Try this same experiment with different types of apples
  • Buy a variety of apples: Granny Smith, Fuji, Golden Delicious, etc. and let the children try them at snack time
  • Which ones did they like the best? Why?
  • How do the apples taste different from each other?

Popcorn Types

Using an air popper, make several batches of popcorn. When the popcorn has cooled off, have the children split the popcorn up into several ziploc bags. Pour melted butter into each bag. Sprinkle a dry ingredient into the bags, close the top, and have your children shake it.
Some choices for dry ingredients are Cinnamon and sugar, nutmeg and sugar, dry ranch, dry cheese, dried herbs like basil, oregano, rosemary, etc.
Have your children choose which one they like best and graph the results.

*You can also make your own homemade microwave popcorn by putting unpopped kernels into a brown paper bag and microwaving until the popcorn has popped (about 1-2 minutes).

Recipes

Open- Ended Recipes for Maximum Creativity

Bagel Faces

Recipe idea came from Pretend Soup by Mollie Katzen

½ bagel per childSprouts for hair (optional)

Spreadable cream cheeseOlives for eyes (optional)

Cherry or grape tomatoesGreen pepper for ears (optional)

Carrot, sliced

Set out the bagels, cream cheese, and veggies in bowls. Let the children practice spreading cream cheese on their own bagels. Children can be as creative as they like in decorating their veggie bagel faces. Put out as many (or few) types of veggies as you like! *If you would rather, use fruit instead – blueberries, raspberries, grapes, oranges, bananas, apples, raisins, etc. would all make fun possibilities for faces.

*A fun variation to this is the recipe we made today of Teddy Bear Faces. Using any kind of bread as a base, spread on cream cheese, peanut butter, honey, or leave plain. Slice some bananas and add bananas to bread for the ears and whites of eyes. Add in raisins, blueberries, or another small fruit for the pupil and tip of the bear nose! Let children be as creative as they can.

Funny Face Sandwiches

Recipe idea came from It’s Great to be Three by Kathy Charner, Maureen Murphy, and K. Whelan Derry

Put a variety of foods into bowls for the children to use as facial features. Be creative and offer a variety of choices.

FACES: English muffins, bages, bread, tortillas

Spread peanut or other nut butters, cream cheese in various flavors, etc.on bread of choice. Then let children decorate faces with…

EYES: green or purple grapes, blueberries, black olives (cut in halves), circular cereal

NOSES: almonds, dried apricots, miniature marshmallows

MOUTHS: tomato wedges, fruit leather

EARS: banana chips, pickle pieces, cheese curls

HAIR: alfalfa sprouts, shredded carrots, coconut flakes

And yet another variation –

It’s Me Salad

Recipe idea came from Penn State Extension’s 101 Snack Time Ideas

Give each child a peach or pear half for his/her body and half a hard cooked egg for a head! Hair can be made from dry cereal, shredded cheese, or grated carrot. Use small pieces of tomato for mouths, celery or carrot sticks for arms and legs. Raisins or plum halves make good shoes. Let each child come up with his/her own combinations.

Sentence Sandwiches

Recipe idea came from Snacktivities! by MaryAnn F. Kohl

Fruit jelly

Sliced bread

Alphabet cereal or cookies

Place a slice of bread on each plate. Spread the fruit jelly on each slice of bread. Give children a handful of cereal/cookies to work with. Let them have fun putting the letters on their bread. If they’re old enough, they can make words or their name.

Munchable Monster Toast

1 cup water

4 colors food coloring

6 slices bread

Butter

Prepare colorful water by adding several drops of food coloring to ¼ cup water. Toast bread slices. Paint wild monster faces on toast with food coloring mixture. Butter toast and munch your monsters! You could use milk instead of water if you like and you could re-toast the bread before buttering and eating.

Math Recipes

Layered Yogurt Parfaits

Recipe idea came from the Growing Minds: Farm to School Program –

Plain or vanilla lowfat yogurt

Granola or any cereal

Fresh fruit – strawberries, blueberries, peaches, bananas, etc.

Clear plastic cups

Children can layer the yogurt, cereal, and fruit into their own parfait cups. They are practicing sequencing – a wonderful early math skill – with this recipe.

Number Salad

Recipe idea came from Pretend Soup by Mollie Katzen

1 handful of coconut6 slices of banana

2 Tablespoons orange juice concentrate7 pieces of melon (cantaloupe, honeydew)

3 orange pieces8 grapes

4 apple slicesstir 9 times

5 cubes of cheese10 – EAT!

For a fun variation, make a Rainbow Salad instead, using fruits and/or vegetables of every color of the rainbow. Arrange the fruit or veggies in the order and shape of a rainbow. Tell the children they get to eat a rainbow!

More Recipe Ideas…

Breakfast Banana Split – from Kids a Cookin’ web site

1 small banana per child

½ cup favorite cereal

½ cup yogurt (any flavor) or cottage cheese

1 teaspoon honey

½ cup pineapple tidbits

Maraschino cherries, optional

Cut banana in half lengthwise and place in cereal bowl or ice cream dish. Sprinkle cereal over banana, spoon yogurt over this, drizzle honey over the top of all. Decorate with pineapple, cherries, and more cereal.

Frozen Waffle Treat

Recipe idea came from Penn State Extension’s 101 Snack Time Ideas

1 12 ounce box (48 frozen mini-waffles)

8 ounces fruit flavored yogurt, any flavor

Spread yogurt on one waffle. Use just enough yogurt to cover the top of 24 waffles (about 2 teaspoons per waffle). Top each waffle with another waffle, making a sandwich. Have each child use crayons or markers to decorate their own plastic sandwich bag. Place waffles in decorated sandwich bags. Freeze until firm. Makes 24 mini sandwiches – a great snack for summer!

Puddingwiches

Recipe idea came from Penn State Extension’s 101 Snack Time Ideas

1 ½ cups cold milk

1 package (3.9 ounces) instant chocolate pudding – or any pudding flavor you prefer

15 whole graham crackers

¼ to ½ cup peanut butter (optional)

In a mixing bowl, combine the milk, pudding mix and peanut butter – leave peanut butter out ifyou have any children with peanut allergiesand try with just the pudding OR substitute in cream cheese – beat on low speed for two minutes. Let stand for 5 minutes. Break graham crackers in half and spread pudding mixture over half of the cracker. Top with the remaining crackers. Wrap and freeze until firm. Makes another excellent summer snack.

Carrot-Cheese-Apple Rollups

Recipe idea came from Mommy’s Little Helper by Karen Brown

1 cup grated cheese

1 cup grated carrot2 Tablespoons honey (or more!)

1 ½ cups grated apple4-6 tortillas

Stir together the cheese, carrots, apples, and honey. Lay tortillas out flat. Spoon out some filling onto each tortilla. Roll up tortillas. You can eat right away or you can wrap the tortillas and refrigerate them for20-30 minutes.

*A fun idea for children: use tortillas instead of bread for all your favorite sandwiches (peanut butter and jelly, bacon-lettuce-tomato, etc.

Extended Food/Cooking Activities and Games

“Toss Salad” Game

This would be a fun game to play to help strengthen children’s knowledge of the different food families or groups. Sit or stand in a circle. Begin by tossing, rolling, or passing a ball to someone else in the circle. Call out the name of a food family as you throw/pass the ball. The player who catches the ball must name a food from that food family, toss the ball to another player, and call out the name of another food family.

Make your own trail mix Scavenger Hunt

This idea came from the web site and blog My Kids Adventures – which has many wonderful ideas in general and lots of creative scavenger hunts to choose from. I love this one, though, because it features cooking delicious rice crispy treats and then making them into a cookie bouquet! Handout with specific instructions for scavenger hunt and recipe can be found at the end of this handout packet.You can also, especially if you have very young children and don’t want to heat anything up on the stove or in the microwave, vary the idea and invite children to make their own trail mix or granola scavenger hunt style!

Here are some ideas of food to include in your trail mix:

Cheerios, Kix, or other cereal

Pretzels

Sunflower seeds

Mini teddy grahams or animal cookies

Banana chips

Raisins

Other dried fruit like cranberries, apricots, or cherries

Mini-marshmallows

Chocolate chips or M & M’s

Write a simple clue for each food in the trail mix, or simply hide them around the room. Each child gets their own Ziploc bag. As they find each part of the trail mix, they get to scoop out a small amount and add it to their bag. When they have found everything, they can close their bag, shake the trail mix, and eat!!

Here are some clue ideas:

  • I am a cereal, I am round and I have an “O” in the middle – Cheerios
  • I am salty and crunch. I am bent in many ways and sometimes look like the number 8 – Pretzel
  • I come from the middle of a very large flower. I am small and squirrels also like to eat me! – Sunflower seeds
  • We are in the shape of different animals you might find at the zoo. We are small and taste sweet. We are crunchy! – Animal cookies
  • We start out as grapes but when we are dried out, we become….Raisins
  • I am very sweet, fluffy, and white. You can roast me over a campfire or put me in a s’more – Marshmallows
  • We are small chocolate candies with a colorful shell on the outside. The shell can be many different colors. M & M’s
  • We start out as a banana but when we get dried out and sliced small, we become….Banana Chips

Snack by Alphabet –

For each letter of the alphabet, fix a fun snack. This may be something you do each week, especially if you have a letter of the week theme in your classroom. Here are a few ideas to get you started…

A – Eat applesauce, apples, apricots, apple muffins, apple juice, apple cereal, or animal crackers

B – Eat blueberries, blueberry muffins, bananas

C – Eat cantaloupe, celery, carrots, cream cheese, crackers, cookies

D – Eat dried fruit, dill pickles, or any kind of dip (with veggies or crackers)