Bread and Jam for Frances, by Russell Hoban

What do you do with a picky eater? Frances will only eat bread and jam, find out how her parents get her to try new foods without a battle of wills.

Materials

Paper coffee cups
Box of Cheerios
12” lengths of yarn, one per child.
Plastic foods
Basket
Pillowcase
Ingredients for play dough
Toaster and loaf of bread to make toast
Copies of placemat for dramatic play

Vocabulary

Jam (another name for jelly or fruit spread).
Picky eater ( a fussy eater. Someone who only likes certain foods and will not even try others)

Before Reading the Story

Tell the children that you want to make a list of their favorite foods. On a piece of paper write; A Few of Our Favorite Foods. Ask each child to name their most favorite food and write it on the paper. (Ali likes tuna fish, Tonaya likes macaroni and cheese). When you are finished, hang the list on the wall.

Literacy/Print Awareness & Concepts; develops growing understanding of the different functions of forms of print such as signs, letters, newspapers, lists, messages, and menus.

Reading the Story

On page 9, ask the children why Gloria was sitting in a high chair? Does this mean that she is a big or little sister? How many people are in the family? On the pages where Frances is singing, make up a simple tune and sing the words.

Mathematics/Patterns & Measurement; begins to make comparisons between several objects based on a single attribute.

After Reading the Story

Talk to the children about your school cook. Explain that he/she works very hard to make nutritious and yummy foods for you all to eat. Ask the children to name some of their favorite school lunches. Take a piece of paper and write a thank you note to your cook with the list of favorite meals. Read your letter back with the children see if they can recognize their name in print (Andres likes your tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches).

Social & Emotional Development/Self-Concept; begins to develop and express awareness of self in terms of specific abilities, characteristics, and preferences. AND Literacy/Print Awareness & Concepts; shows progress in recognizing the association between spoken and written words by following print as it is read aloud.

Discovery

Make play dough with the children. Let children make in plastic zip lock bags. 1 cup flour, ¼ cup salt, ¼ cup water. Seal bag and knead. Add more water a little at a time until dough is workable and not sticky. If you do not add food coloring it will look like bread dough and have a similar consistency to bread dough.

Approaches to Learning/Engagement & Persistence; grows in abilities to persist in and complete a variety of tasks, activities, projects, and experiences.

Make toast with the children. Talk about the differences in the bread before and after being toasted.

Science/Scientific Skills & Methods; develops increased ability to observe and discuss common properties, differences, and comparisons among objects and materials.

Music and Movement

Sing the Yum, Yum, Song with your children. Explain that this is a call back song. You will sing a line and the children will repeat it back. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3w3LbIZAqMw

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

Sing, I Like to Eat Apples and Bananas. http://apples and bananas raffi

Literacy/Phonological Awareness; associates sounds with written words, such as awareness that different words begin with the same sound.

Play the following chant game with the children. It begins with /j/ and ends with /am/, put it together and it says jam. It begins with /b/ and ends with/air/, put it together and it says bear! Continue using one syllable words.

Literacy/Phonological Awareness; shows growing ability to hear and discriminate separate syllables in words.

Blocks

Play a game, which loaf of bread is longer? Tell the children that you are going to pretend that the rectangle blocks are loaves of bread. Have them gather many rectangle blocks. Ask them to show you which rectangle is longest, shortest. How many short rectangles does it take to make the long rectangle loaf of bread? Can you take the rectangle loaves of bread and make a square loaf? How many loaves did it take? Now try to make a triangle loaf of bread, how many loaves did this take? For older children add a ruler and ask them if they can name the number of inches long that each loaf of bread is.

Mathematics/Pattern & Measurement; shows progress in using standard and non-standard measures for length and area of objects. AND Mathematics/Geometry & Spatial Sense; progresses in ability to put together and take shapes apart.

Art

Put out large pieces of brown construction paper cut into bread slice shapes. Put out red, purple, and orange paint to be ‘jam’. The children can paint the bread.

Creative Arts/Art; gains ability in using different art media and materials in a variety of ways for creative expression and representation.

Cut out bread shapes from white construction paper. Cut out many 1 inch squares from red, orange, and purple tissue paper. Put out bowls of school glue. Child paints with the school glue onto the bread shape and then takes a piec of tissue paper and lays it on the glue. Continue adding glue and tissue paper until the entire slice of bread is covered. When it is dried, trim the edges so it retains the sliced bread shape and hang in a window to reveal all the colors.

Creative Arts/Art; gains ability in using different art media and materials in a variety of ways for creative expression and representation.

Sand and Water

Sand today with bread pan, colander, flour sifter, measuring cups and measuring spoons.

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 which is their favorite kind of egg. Copy each kind of egg and the children can write their name on the page of the one that they like best.

Literacy/Early Writing; progresses from using scribbles, shapes, or pictures to represent ideas, to using letter-like symbols, to copying or writing familiar words such as their own name. AND Social & Emotional Development/Self-Concept; begins to develop and express awareness of self in terms of specific abilities, characteristics, amd preferences.

Dramatic Play

Sandwich shop play. Provide paper coffee cups, cash register, play money, and menu with pictures cut out and glued to cardboard of sandwiches and other lunch items. Write the name of the item beside.

Literacy/Print Awareness; develops growing understanding of the different functions of forms of print such as signs, letters, newspapers, lists, messages, and menus. AND Creative Arts/Dramatic Play; participates in a variety of dramatic play activities that become more extended and complex.

Practice setting the table for a meal.

Mathematics/Geometry & Spatial Sense; begins to determine whether or not two shapes are the same size and shape.

Math and Manipulatives

Tell the children that cereal is also a breakfast food. Give each child a 12 inch piece of yarn with masking tape wrapped around one end. Have the children string cheerios onto the yarn. When finished, tie off for simple necklace.

Physical Health & Development/Fine Motor Skills; grows in hand-eye coordination in building with blocks, putting together puzzles, reproducing shapes and patterns, stringing beads, and using scissors.

Ask to have a snack today that would require the children to use a plastic knife to spread. Bread and jam, bagel and crème cheese, cracker and hummus.

Outdoor Play

Bring out jump ropes. Have two children hold the rope and others jump OVER the rope. Raise two inches, jump over the rope. Continue jumping OVER the rope at higher and higher intervals.

Physical Health & Development/Gross Motor Skills; shows increasing levels of proficiency, control, and balance in walking, climbing, running, jumping, hopping, skipping, marching, and galloping.

Transitions

Put all your plastic foods into a pillow case. The children take turns putting their hand into the pillowcase and grabbing a food item. When they pull it out, they must name it and then toss it into a basket about 5 feet away. For children who are very familiar with the names of your plastic food items, ask them to describe something about the food. (It’s an apple, it’s crunchy. It’s peas and I like them!).

Physical Health & Development/Gross Motor Skills; demonstrates increasing abilities to coordinate movements in throwing, catching, kicking, bouncing balls, and using the slide and swing. AND Language Development/Speaking & Communicating; uses an increasingly complex and varied vocabulary.