K-2 Book Adventure Program Summary: “Food in Fact and Fiction”

Our December K-2 program was built around food.  As usual, we tried to mix in different types of books:  folktales, picture books, early readers, and non-fiction. 

We started with “Cookies,” from Frog and Toad Together, which is described here. 
Then we did the first of our

three “Funny Food” segments that we interspersed throughout the program.  These all featured scans of the amazing photos from the books of Saxton Freymann...you know, the ones where he makes fruits and vegetables look like stuff.  We selected pages from several of his books and grouped them into three categories:  Animals, People, and Vehicles.  Then we projected the series of images with music in the background for about 90 seconds each segment.  The music we chose was Scott Joplin's “The Entertainer” by Marvin Hamlisch (from the soundtrack to The Sting) for People;  “In the Mood” by the Henhouse Five plus Too (aka Ray Stevens and others "clucking" the song) for Animals;  and “Soul Limbo” by Booker T & the MG’s for Vehicles.  This was great fun for the kids (and fun to put together in PowerPoint) and gave a nice continuity to the program.  Plus there's the added virtue of exposing a bunch of 6 and 7 year olds to Booker T & the MG's.

Next up was Lunch Lady and the Cyborg Substitute by Jarrett Krosoczka.  Graphic novels are popular with this young age group, and easy to present.  Give them the premise (the Lunch Lady is actually a crime fighter!  The substitute teacher is an evil cyborg) and show some of the paneled illustrations on the screen and they’re hooked.

For a non-fiction food title we featured What You Never Knew About Fingers, Forks and Chopsticks by Patricia Lauber and John Manders.  This is a funny and factual look at how humans have eaten from prehistoric times to the present.  We shared a few facts from the book, accompanied by scans of Manders’ funny cartoon illustrations. 

Next up was The Fat Cat, which is described in more detail here.  We followed that with a food break.  We haven’t used snacks with this program in the past, but our theme pretty much required it this time.  We went with all fruits and veggies, cut up and put into cups, and the kids ate them all!  To serve them we borrowed a strategy we’ve been using in our “Cookies and Books” booktalk program for grades 3-5:  We give the kids 60 seconds to get up, get their food, and sit again, and we do a music/video countdown on the screen (from Minute to Win It) so they can see where they are.  It makes it fun, gets it done fast, and also serves as a “stand up and move around” break.

We did one more non-fiction book:  What Do You Do When Someone Wants to Eat You by Steve Jenkins, whose books I feature at any opportunity I get.  For this one we showed the picture of one animal on the screen (like the lizard) and asked the kids to guess how it avoids being eaten (tail falls off).  They seemed to know most of the answers, but that’s fine. 

We finished the program with If You Give a Dog a Donut.  Details are here.  Also, you can always click on “Program Summaries” under the “Labels” section on the right to see past K-2 Book Adventure line-ups.