Ice -cream Cones for Sale!

January 10th, 2012

Invention has various mothers. Necessity is one. Serendipity is another.
Elaine Greesnstein’s book, Ice-cream Cones for Sale! has fun with the facts while challenging the reader’s imagination about the invention of the ice-cream cone.  What is plausible bumps into the  probable which collides with most possible. Regardless, it’s an informative and fun read, which will be even better if read while consuming one’s favorite flavor ice cream!

ACTIVITY: Select some items in the kitchen, include edible as well as kitchen tools (vegetable peelers, potato ricer, cuisinart…). speculate as to how the item was invented. Allow yourself to imagine lees plausible to the highly probable. And be sure to allow for serendipity!

Pancakes, Pancakes!

January 9th, 2012

Here’s an entertaining and eventful way to make explore that well-worn question;

Where does you food come from?

Rather than building a house, this storybook Jack wants a big pancake for breakfast. His mother deconstructs what it takes to make a pancake and sends young Jack out to obtain the ingredients.

It’s a delightful way to make a serious point- AND Eric Careie’s collage-like pictures keep the pages turning.

ACTIVITY: Deconstruct a meal. Identify the source of the different food items. If you can’t visit (a miller, a dairy, etc.) do your own illustrations.

Two Old Potatoes, and Me

January 9th, 2012

John Coy (writer) with Caroly Fisher (pictures) have produced  a fabulous book that dazzlingly  integrates science, recycling, intergenerational relations,divorce, poetry, ART!…and…. a recipe.

It’s a great story, compellingly told about a little girl who finds a potato that has sprouted through its eyes. Her resourceful dad calls upon the earth wisdom of his father, and daughter and dad proceed to see what these potatoes will grow.

It’s marvelous.

ACTIVITY: GROW POTATOES! Or at least, let a potato sprout and grow inside and draw and sketch and splat and collage a story about your home grown potatoes.

Feeding Friendsies

November 17th, 2011

Feeding Friendsies, written and illustrated by Suzanne Bloom is indeed friendly, and charming. The text, accompanied by delightful watercolor illustrations, take the reader through a series of earnest and imaginary “meals” concocted by a bunch of children fully engaged with simply playing outside. Bugs and dirt, and sun and leaves, and twigs and things get mixed together and offered up as feasts for bunnies, bears and lambs. Their hard work of all that play is rewarded with a feast of their own.

ACTIVITY: Give the children in your care some safe tools they can use outside to “cook up” some treats for the critters in the yard, or in their imaginations; bowls, spoons, pots ….. Collect the recipes the children make up. Have the children do the illustrations.

To Market, To Market, by Nikki McClure

August 1st, 2011

There is a old nursery rhyme of the same title:                          

To market, to market to buy a fat pig;

Home again, home again, jiggety-jig.

To market, to market, to buy a fat hog;

Home again, home again, jiggety-jog.

To market, to market, to buy a plum cake;

Home again, home again, market is late.

To market, to market, to buy a plum bun;

Home again, home again, market is done.

To market, to market, a gallop a trot,

To buy some meat to put in the pot;

Three pence a quarter, a groat a side,

If it hadn’t been killed it must have died

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A new book of the same title  by Nikki McClure, features paper-cut prints by the author. The book takes the reader through a day’s shopping at a farmer’s market. It’s an earnest book. Each segment spotlights a purchase; kale, apples, smoked salmon, cheese, blueberry turnovers; and each purchase is accompanied with text about the purveyor, and concludes with an attitude of gratitude.

Interesting that the older text is more in step with Mrs. Obama’s Get Movin’ campaign for healthy food, with the jiggety- jog, trot and gallop. So, read both! Get moving Home Again Home Again,

while learning more about that field to table connection.

ACTIVITY: Go to a farmer’s market and make up a dance using a jiggity-jog, trot, gallop, and other moves that get you Home Again, Home Again!

Reading Rockets features COOKING and BAKING

July 15th, 2011

WETA’s online literacy initiative Reading Rockets has posted a Literacy Bag featuring two great books:
Easy as Pie and How Did This Get Into My Lunchbox

The easy to download Literacy Bags include great activities based on the books as well as online resources

CHECK IT OUT

How to Make an Apple Pie, and see the world

June 9th, 2011

This is baking, from scratch. No kidding!

Majorie Priceman takes the reader on whirl-wind global shopping trip to get what is needed to bake an apple pie.

Italy, France, Sri Lanka, England, Jamaica …. and Vermont —  nothing deters our heroine as she sails, flies, bicycles and walks to get all the necessary ingredients. Some off-handed travel tips are thrown in, too.

How to Make an Apple Pie, and see the world puts a gyro spin on the often asked question, “do you know where your food comes from?”

And, yes, recipe is included.

ACTIVITY:  Get a map. Identify all the countries the baker visited. What sorts of pies do the people of that country bake?

Honey Cookies

June 2nd, 2011

Honey Cookies, by Meredith Hooper and illustrated by Alison Bartlett is a delightful and charming way to show “where our food comes from” and not be looking at farmers digging in the dirt, animals chomping on grass, or cheesemakers pouring sweet. Instead, Honey Cookies deconstructs the basics of baking; sugar, butter, flour, eggs, cinnamon, honey and the power of loving hands mixing it all together.

The alchemy of baking is all the more magical as each of the ingredients are seen in their  individual glory.

Be warned- recipe is included.

ACTIVITY: What is a favorite dessert baked for your family?  Make a map – an info graphic to show where each of the ingredients come from.

My Foodie ABC

May 25th, 2011

Nutrition can often take over a conversation about  food, particularly one about what children are eating.Keeping the spotlight on nutrition tends to marginalize  the value of taste – which, far from a naughty pleasure, is core to embracing a healthy  relationship to food and food culture.  Though young taste buds tend to favor sweet, we know that exposing them to a range of tastes and flavors helps create a healthy palate, makes one a better guest at a dinner table later in life, and sows the seeds for respecting the personal and cultural habits of others.

My Foodie ABC by Puck, illustrated by Violet Lemay, is a great way to introduce young children a range of tastes, flavors, and textures of different and unusual foods.

Though the term “foodie” can connote a food snob, but  My Foodie ABC creates a democratic landscape, making the exotic as accessible as apple pie…. Opah, Nopales, Quinoa…….Radicchio… no longer words just for gown-ups.

Oh, and there’s a companion book of placemats for doodling and drawing!

ACTIVITY: Make a Family Foodie ABC book. What unusual foods does your family explore? Make an illustrated dictionary of them!

Real Food for Healthy Kids

May 13th, 2011

This is more than a cookbook, it’s a guidebook for busy parents who want to make good on their commitment to feed their children, well. Though there are some kid-friendly entries (Green Eggs-in-Ham quiche) Real Food brings to the kiddie table a seriousness of purpose. And that’s great. There is a wide range of sweet and savory dishes, bringing to young palates a true introduction to real food. Perfectly titled, Real Food also offers helpful menu planning, by season, organized in weekly installments.  An excellent resource that will serve any family, well, as the kids continue to grow.

ACTIVITY: You can use Real Food for Healthy Kids to include them in menu planning; for the week, for a day or for a special occasion. When possible, including children in planning what the family will be eating, gives them a sense of satisfaction and responsibility.

By Tracey Seaman and Tanya Wenman Steel, Morrow Books.

You can purchase Real Food for Healthy Kids.