Yoko, by Rosemary Wells

Yoko is taking her favorite lunch to school today, homemade sushi. But at lunch the children make fun of her unusual meal. Find out how her teacher helps her to feel better about eating differently than the other children. This is a good book to talk about acceptance and the hurtfulness of teasing.

Materials

Several sets of chopsticks (you can use unsharpened pencils also). Put a small rubber band around them so the children can more easily open and close the sticks.
2 small bowls and a handful of puffballs
Pictures of foods

Vocabulary

sushi-a food from Japan that is made with rice, fish, and vegetables that look like balls or rolls.

Before Reading the Story

Start a conversation about favorite lunch time foods. If you have a cook at your school write a thank you not that tells some of the children’s favorite foods. Remind the children that sometimes the lunch has a new item on the menu and that you encourage everyone to try a “no thank you helping at the least”.

Literacy/Early Writing; develops understanding that writing is a way of communicating for a variety of purposes.

Reading the Story

When you get to the page where Valerie blew the whistle and says, “Everybody out!” Ask the children why they think that Valerie did this (the children were teasing her, they were not being nice to the cat, they made fun of her).

Literacy/Book Knowledge & Appreciation; shows growing interest and involvement in listening to and discussing a variety of fiction, non-fiction and poetry.

After Reading the Story

After you have read the story, ask again what happened at lunch that made Yoko so upset? Lead this into a discussion about kindness and not teasing others. Explain that teasing makes people feel sad and mad. Let the children know of any acts of kindness that you have seen in the last two days (Ann showed Michael how to open the paint jar so he could get more paint. Ryan told Paula he would give her a ride on the back of his tricycle when there were no more left. Alison told Sean “I like your new shoes”). Remind the children that if someone is teasing you, you can stand up for yourself and say, ”I don’t like it when you______”.

Social & Emotional Development/Self Control; develops growing understanding of how their actions affect others and begins to accept the consequences of their action. AND Social & Emotional Development/Social Relationships; progresses in responding sympathetically to peers who are in need, upset, hurt, angry; and in expressing empathy or caring to others.

Discovery

At lunch today, encourage all the children to try at least one bite of a new food. If you have a picky eater, ask someone who likes the food already to try to explain the taste before the picky eater tries his/her bite. Remind them that in the story the children decided that they would try everything! Encourage all the children to try a No thank you helping of all foods served at lunch.

Social & Emotional Development/Cooperation; increases abilities to sustain interactions with peers b helping, sharing, and discussion.

Music and Movement

If you use any of the song titles from the story with your classroom, sing it with the children at your music time today. (The Good Morning Song, The Snack Time Song, The Friendly Song, The Clean Hands Song, and The School Bus Song).

Language Development/Listening & Understanding; demonstrates increasing ability to attend to and understand conversations, stories, songs, and poems.

Sing You Have To Eat Good Food to The Hokey Pokey https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfPg_GzC-HA

You have to eat good food to grow, grow, grow

You have to exercise to grow, grow, grow

You have to sleep at night to grow, grow, grow

Take good care of yourself.

Physical Health & development/Health Status & Practices; builds awareness and ability to follow basic health and safety rules such as fire safety, traffic and pedestrian safety, and responding appropriately to potentially harmful objects, substances, and activities.

Blocks

Challenge the children to make a table big enough for them to eat at. How many blocks did it take? What else did they use besides blocks?

Approaches to learning/Reasoning & Problem Solving; develops increasing ability to find more than one solution to a question, task, or problem.

Art

Pretend to make sushi and practice rolling play dough. Give each child a lump of play dough and a roller. If you do not have rollers, cylinder blocks work well. Let the children practice rolling the dough out thin. After they have rolled it out, show them how to roll the dough into a long cylinder like shape. Let them use plastic knives to cut it into small sushi like pieces.

Physical Health & Development/Fine Motor Skills; develops growing strength, dexterity, and control needed to use tools such as scissors, paper punch, stapler, and hammer.

Sand and Water

Use dampened sand in the table today. Add some plates, pots and pans, and cooking utensils. The children can pretend to be making food.

Creative Arts/Dramatic Play; shows growing creativity and imagination in using materials and in assuming different roles in dramatic play situations.

Library and Writing

Ask the children to draw a picture of their favorite lunch and then the teacher can write what they say it is underneath. Hang these on the wall, as ‘These are a few of our favorite meals’.

Literacy/Early Writing; begins to represent stories and experiences through pictures, dictation, and in play. AND Literacy/Early Writing; develops understanding that writing is a way of communicating for a variety of purposes.

Dramatic Play

Remind the children that in the story Yoko and Timothy pushed their desks together to play restaurant. Put out a takeout menu or restaurant props for the children today

Creative Arts/Dramatic Play; shows growing creativity and imagination in using materials and in assuming different roles in dramatic play situations.

Math and Manipulatives

Bring in several pairs of chopstick or make them using unsharpened pencils. Put out a bowl of puffballs and challenge the children to pick up the puffballs one at a time and drop them into another bowl.

Physical Health & Development/Fine Motor Skills; develops growing strength, dexterity, and control needed to use tools such as scissors, paper punch, stapler, and hammer.

Outdoor Play

Let the children make Garden Soup today. Put out buckets, water, and scissors. Show the children how to cut grass with the scissors to add to the soup as well as pine needles, rocks, bark, etc..

Creative Arts/Dramatic Play; shows growing creativity and imagination in using materials and in assuming different roles in dramatic play situations. AND Approaches to learning/Initiative & Curiosity; approaches tasks and activities with increased flexibility, imagination, and inventiveness.