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Story Snacks
Exploring Healthy Food with
Pre-school Children
En Español
| Children often avoid vegetables
and fruits that are new to them. One way to motivate your child to try new foods
is to prepare snacks in a creative way. You might present the snacks as part of a
story in which the foods become characters and settings. A celery stick with peanut
butter and raisins becomes Òants on a log.Ó Carrot rounds and grape halves become
part of a magic necklace. Practice math skills by counting food with your youngster.
Try sorting foods into piles of two to five items each. Take turns eating an item
from a pile, predicting how many items remain, and re-counting the food to check
the numbers. Demonstrate how much you enjoy tasting new foods by snacking along with
your child as she tells you a story and explores math. |
Fruit Puzzles!
While making snacks with your child, teach her the names and natural forms of the
foods. Slice the fruits and vegetables in different ways: an apple cut into three
or four pieces becomes a small puzzle for your child to assemble.
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Teach Your Child
- to taste and enjoy healthy
foods
- what natural food looks like
inside and out
- that vegetables, fruits, and
grains have important nutrients that help us grow
- new words related to food
preparation
- math skills: count, compare,
and sort various foods
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YUMMY!
What better way to celebrate a wonderful story than with healthy food  that nourishes the body and delights
the mind!
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You Will Need
- a story book with interesting
characters and situations
- 3ø5 different kinds of food
that can be assembled in interesting ways. You will need one to several pieces of
each item per person.
- warm soapy water for washing
hands
- utencils for making and serving
snacks
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A fun book that relates to food
is "Everybody Cooks Rice" by Norah Dooley. See page 2 for additional recommendations.
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Introducing Story
Snacks
- Read a book to your child.
After reading the book announce it is time to eat a fun snack.
- Model for your child how to
wash hands before preparing and eating food.
- Show her the kinds of food
available and ask her to point out the ones she knows.
- Put some food on your plate
to make a design or picture about the story. Add more food you plan to eat while
you make the design. Point out the new foods you look forward to trying. ÒI wonder
what it will taste like?Ó
- Invite your child to select
some snack items to make a design or picture about the story. Encourage her to take
some extra items to eat while making the design.
- Let the fun begin! Select
a food item and describe it. Let your child do the same. Start making a picture or
design to go with the story and have your child do the same with his food. For example,
if you read "Stone Soup" by Marcia Brown, you might use a tortilla or cracker
as the large iron pot, and invite your child to help you add to the soup.
- Help your child sort the food
into piles by color or shape. Encourage her to predict how many of each item is in
a pile, then count the food together.
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Try various shapes
and tastes of foods.
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Talking About Snacks
- Chat with your child about
the designs and food.
- How many new foods did you
try?
- What are your favorites? What
did they taste like?
- Which food was the most colorful?
most salty? crunchiest? softest?
- How can this food help your
body?
- While reading the story, encourage
your child to talk about a snack as it relates to the story.
- Following the story and snack,
encourage your child to draw a picture of the food design.
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Use your imagination . . .
- A cherry-blueberry necklace!
- Ants on a log (celery stick,
peanut butter or cream cheese, and raisins!)
 
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Books About Food
and Cooking
- "Pigs in the Pantry,
Fun with Math and Cooking" by Amy Axelrod, Scholastic, New York, 1998.
- "Stone Soup" by
Marcia Brown, Aladdin Books, New York, 1945, 1975.
- "Everybody Cooks Rice"
by Norah Dooley, Carolrhoda Books Minneapolis, Minn., 1991; "Everybody Bakes
Bread", 1996; "Everybody Serves Soup", 2000.
- "Eating the Alphabet,
Fruits and Vegetables from A to Z" by Lois Ehlert, Voyager Books, Harcourt Brace,
San Diego, Calif., 1989.
- "Thunder Cake" by
Patricia Polacco, Putnam Publishing Group, New York, 1997.
- "The Tamale Quilt"
by Jane Tenorio-Coscarelli, 1/4 Inch Designs & Publishing, Murrieta, Calif.,
1998.
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