A Healthy Body and Mind: Teaching Young Children About Food and Nutrition

It's important to eat well and live a healthy lifestyle. Children not only need the proper nutrients for their bodies, but for their minds, too.

I think it's a great idea to educate children at a young age about food, food sources, and nutrition. One easy way to get started on this topic is to........READ A BOOK!

Here are a few suggestions:

The Vegetables We Eat by Gail Gibbons is a great introduction to veggies! It is packed full of information and contains colorful illustrations.

The Berenstain Bears and Too Much Junk Food by Stan and Jan Berenstain is a fantastic book to teach children about "good" versus "bad" food and the effects they can have on the body.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle is a beloved classic book, but can be used as a baby and toddler-friendly method of introducing different types of food. Not only is it highly educational (teaches days of the week and counting), but you could talk with your child about what foods are healthy and which are "sometimes" foods.

Green Eggs and Ham by Dr Seuss teaches children the importance of trying new and unfamiliar foods. Perfect for those picky toddlers!

10 Hungry Rabbits by Anita Lobel is another great book for the wee ones. At heart it's a color and counting book, but also a cool segue into a lesson on vegetables. Captivating enough for babies or toddlers.

Other books to check out:

At the Supermarket by Anne Rockwell

Growing Colors by Bruce McMillian

Gregory, The Terrible Eater by Mitchell Sharmat

Eating the Alphabet by Lois Ehlert (check out this post on P is for...Peas! that uses inspiration from this book)

Also visit Delightful Children's Books post titled 10 Children's Books About Food.


Use these books in conjunction with food & nutrition activities such as these:

1) Make a shopping list together.
2) Look through grocery store flyers and identify foods. Try to classify them into food groups.
3) Make a collage of foods from magazines.
4) Make a list of your favorite foods.
5) Plant a garden or visit one. For some added literacy fun, play a  game like "watering an alphabet garden".    
6) Play supermarket at home and raid your cupboards.
7) Experiment with food - play a tasting game, observe changes in food.
8) Create a book inspired meal. For some great ideas visit, The Educators' Spin on it series called Little Hands that Cook with Books .
9) Have a "soup day".
10) Build a tower out of foods like block cheese, or pretzel sticks.

To help end childhood hunger, please visit Share Our Strength.

Toddler Technology: Three Learning Apps You Don't Want to Miss

If you are not new here, then you know that many of my posts pair a book with an activity.  Today, though, I'm talking about books and fun, educational apps.

Here are three great apps for the toddler age group, and books that will help to reinforce the skills learned from the apps even more!

1) Caillou's World

Based on the popular show Caillou which airs on PBS, this app is perfect for the pre-reader.  To play, the child selects a scene (such as the playground or crosswalk), and an object in the scene flashes in bright colors.  When the child taps on the flashing object, it is enlarged and the child is prompted to choose which letter the object starts with.

Why an educational psychologist likes this app (um...that's me):  Phonemic awareness activities, such as the phonemic isolation in this app, aid literacy skills!

Why baby bookworm likes this app: Caillou!  Seriously, this kid is obsessed with this bald-headed character.

Why you'll like this app:  Your child won't mind practicing phonemic isolation in the least with the help of Caillou.

Related books: There is a whole host of Caillou books and the cool thing is that you can find books on this site by theme, and that are appropriate for your child's age.

Learning tips:  Take some time to guide your child through the app a few times until he gets the hang of it.  When you read the Caillou books, make connections back to Caillou's World.  You could even use the app and book together by finding an object in the illustrations that also begins with the same letter as the object in the game.

Critique:  If I have to make one minor critique of this app, it's that sometimes the flashing objects in the scene are difficult to spot because they are small.  But, with a little help from an adult, your child will catch on and if he doesn't find the object, the game does move forward automatically.

2)  Richard Scarry's Busytown

This app is modeled after Richard Scarry's beloved word books and resembles Busy, Busy Town.  At the start of the app, the child selects a character (bunny, cat, pig or fox), gives him a name, and dresses him up.  Then that character picks a place to explore such as the kitchen, grocery store, playground, firehouse, bedroom or bathroom.  The object of the game is to help another furry friend find an item in the room selected.

Dressing her character

This app is an amped up version of the popular books that adds a "search and find" aspect for kids that is really enjoyable.  What's also cool?  Tap an object and the word will appear with voice over, and some of the objects are interactive.

Why I like this app:  The search and find aspect of the app aids a lot of skills such as matching, memory, comparison, and object recognition!  Oh, and of course the word labels are fostering the development of literacy skills, too.

Why baby bookworm likes this app:  She LOVES selecting the character and dressing him or her up!

Why you'll like this app: It brings the popular books and characters "to life".

Related books:  If you aren't familiar with Richard Scarry's books - get familiar!  I can remember reading them as a child and am thrilled to have passed my books on to my own daughter.  I only wish I'd had a fun app like this one when I was a kid!

Learning tips:  After your child is done playing, ask him about what he learned.  What objects did he have to find?  What character did he choose? What was his favorite room to explore?

3) Counting with the Very Hungry Caterpillar

Given the name, I'm sure you can figure out that this app is based on the ever so popular book The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle.  Explore numbers, counting, and vocabulary in this colorful app that will challenge your child for years to come.

Why I like this app: It's great for practicing one-to-one correspondence (each item has its own counting label), the cardinality rule (the name of last item you count represents the quantity of the entire set of items), and the flexible application rule (no matter what objects you are counting, whether it's strawberries or lollipops, you count them in the same way, using the same counting words).

Counting sausages 

Why baby bookworm likes this app: She likes to name and eat the objects!

Why you'll like this app: It grows with your child.  Thanks to 5 difficulty levels, there's no chance your child is getting bored with it anytime soon!  

Related books:  The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle.  Reinforce the number and counting skills learned in the app by playing your own game with the book!

Learning tips: Challenge your child and support his learning by playing the app with him on a level that is slightly above their ability level.

All three of these apps are from Night & Day Studios (and they also have a really cute Go Away Big Green Monster app that I wrote about a few months ago) and can be purchased for just a few dollars.

Disclosure: I did receive free copies of these apps from Night & Day Studios, but it in no way influenced my opinion (or baby bookworm's). 

Books and Activities Round-Up

Baby bookworm and I do LOTS and LOTS of crafts and activities in conjunction with reading books.  I often don't get the time to blog about all of them in detail.  So, here is a round-up of some of my favorite things we have done in the past month.

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?

by Bill Martin Jr.

illustrated by Eric Carle

A classic.  

Repetitious text and brightly colored animals

makes it enjoyable for babies and toddlers,

and an "easy" reader for school-aged children.

Animal Stamper Activity

A very quick and easy activity that teaches animal names, fine motor skills, and colors.  The stampers we used are from Melissa & Doug.  Make up a story like we did that mirrors the rhythm of Brown Bear Brown Bear!

Blue horse blue horse what do you see? I see a green turtle...

                       ********************************************************************

No Two Alike

by Keith Baker

A cute book about the uniqueness in everything

Snowflake Match

This activity will give your child a little practice in fine motor and matching, and all you need are some scissors, a hole puncher, and white paper.

Fold your paper into the shape of a square and use scissors
and hole puncher to make snowflakes

Our snowflake masterpieces - no two are alike!

I cut the snowflakes in half down the center

Then baby bookworm matched the second half of the
snowflake to the first

********************************************************************

DINOSAUR WORLD

by Christopher Santoro

A lift-the-flap book

Dinosaur Dig Activity

This activity is not only science related, but math, too!  And aside from the HUGE mess, was a lot of fun.  Don't forget to make connections back to the book.  If you have a baby, you could probably try this activity with jello (an idea that I can't take credit for because my friend mentioned her infant did this at day care).

Our materials for the dig included - a rake, shovel, sand, Popsicle sticks (bones),
a large bowl, magnifying glasses and a little water

Hide all of the Popsicle sticks in the sand.  Add a little water.
Then let your child dig for "bones" with the tools

When you find a bone, mark it with a number like a real Paleontologist

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How to Build a Snowman

Little Scholastic

Learn all about the parts of a snowman in this board book perfect for 

babies and toddlers

Sock Snowman Craft

A fun way to build your own snowman without the snow!  We used a sock, cheerios for stuffing, and pipe cleaners, paint, googly eyes, and markers to decorate.  Inspire your child's creativity.

Sock snowman filled with Cheerios

********************************************************************

Up and Down

by Oliver Jeffers

A tale of a boy and his penguin friend who is on a quest to fly.

A story of friendship at heart.

Penguin Craft

Aside from being a cute craft, making this penguin is a lesson in size!  Arrange the ovals by size and talk about bigger and smaller.

All you need to make the penguin (plus some glue)

Have a conversation about size while you create your penguin

All finished!

Why is it a good idea to pair a book with an activity or craft?

• it's a great way to spark interest in a topic.  For instance, reading about what a Paleontologist does may not be as fun as "doing" what a Paleontologist does. 
• it can motivate a child to read; after doing an activity, a child may be more interested in reading the book again and again, or other books on the topic.
• it helps to build connections between a child's knowledge base and new learning
• it helps with the transfer of knowledge; learning concepts and skills in different contexts will help your child transfer their knowledge from one situation to another
• it aids learning through repetition of concepts and ideas 

I am sharing this post at Read. Explore. Learn on JDaniel4'sMom blog. Check it out for more activities and books.




What books and activities have you paired recently? Please share!