Books about Cooking

Cooking:
The Little Red Hen (various versions, I like Rebecca Emberly)
Pete's a Pizza by William Stief
Pancakes! Pancakes! by Eric Carle
Cooking with the Cat
Grandpa and Me by Karen Katz
ABC of Cookies
Bunny Cakes by Rosemary Wells
Fancy Nancy: Delectable Cupcakes by Jane O'Connor
Fancy Nancy:Tea Parties by Jane O'Connor
Amelia Bedelia Bakes Off
Curious George Makes Pancakes by HA Rey
Cooking with Henry and Elliebelly


Food:
If You Give a Mouse a Cookie
If You Give a Pig a Pancake
If You Give a Moose a Muffin
If You Give a Dog a Donut
Eating the Alphabet by Lois Elhert
Dragons Love Tacos
Spicy Hot Colors
Bread and Jam for Francis
Ruby's Tea for Two by Rosemary Wells
Counting Peas by Rosemary Wells
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
Green Eggs and Ham by Dr Seuss
Blueberries for Sal
Bee-Bim Bop!
Growing Vegetable Soup by Lois Elhert
Strega Nona by Tomi
I Will Never Not Ever Eat a Tomato by Lauren Child
Maisy Grows a Garden by Lucy Cousins (Fed 2013)
I Like Vegetables

Our list of apple titles.
Our list of pumpkin titles. 



Eating:
Today is Mondayby Eric Carle
Party in My Tummy(Yo Gabba Gabba)
Bear Wants More
Gregory, The Terrible Eater
Feast for Ten
Max's Breakfast by Rosemary Wells
Little Pea

For Really Little Ones:
Mealtime by Roger Priddy
Stratch and Sniff Food by DK
Baby Food by Margaret Miller
Baby's First Food by Hinkler (Publisher)

Eric Carle!

I wrote up what we did for our two Eric Carle sessions to post on my blog, so why not post it here, too!

Session 1:
Eric Carle stories playing on YouTube during free play.  


The kids had a Very Hungry Caterpillar snack (apples, pears, strawberries, and oranges) while I read them the book.

During circle time I sang Today is Monday.

We closed circle with the kids picking a book and reading it with an adult.

Our art project was exploring different mediums in one color (crayong, oil pastel, colored pencil, marker), then painting over it in variety of colors.

Take home was "I feel grouchy when" lady bugs.  (Didn't have time to read the book)

Session 2:
During snack, I read three Eric Carle books: Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?; The Man Who Painted a Blue Horse; and Polar Bear, Polar Bear What Do You Hear? 

Quickly went into the scavenger hunt game because the kids were taking down the animals. (For this game I just color copied the last page of Brown Bear and hid them around the house).  The kids colored in the pictures on a sheet as they found them. 

During free play, we sang Old McDonald with a basket of animal stuffed animals I'd gathered.

Our art project was tearing and gluing colored tissue, then using unconventional materials (foam, tubes, bubble wrap, stamper brushes, roller brush, styrofoam balls, gift wrap bows) to paint the tissue.

Take home activity color or paint wooden bears and butterflies and make into fridge magnets.

The only activity from session 2 we didn't get to was to read and play From Head to Toe. 

Children and art, fundamentals of development (by Rachel)

Here's Rachel's wonderful post I'd ask her to write for us about child art development.  We'll get some pics in there soon!

 Children and art, fundamentals of development

How children progress in Art making through stages.

In my former life I was an Art teacher, part of my education was learning how art and development start out one in the same and the different stages children go through – pretty critical in designing appropriate curriculum per age/grade. Being that I worked with children starting in kindergarten I didn't see much of the earliest stages of art making. It's been really fun watching Imogene go through this artistic development and seeing first hand how she's progressed.

“Art” is a huge part of development in humans. Studies have shown and concluded that all humans, no matter what part of the world they live in or their socioeconomic status go through the same developmental stages in drawing, this happens to start with mark making. Some of this is a factor of fine motor skill ability and cognitive changes that happen in the brain as a child understands they can manipulate their environment. Now, an individual with a developmental delay may stay in the same “art stage” that coincides with their cognitive functioning abilities and never move on to the next step. Each stage happens naturally and without any kind of adult intervention. The ages are really really general and I only put them in as a generalized average. A 4 or 5 year old could be in the “scribble” stage and still progress. There are about 6 stages of “artistic”development children go through from ages 18 months through ages 15/16.

The scribble stage (approx 18 months- age 3)

Generally, although each child is different, at around 18 months children start to become interested in “making marks” they recognize when they use a tool (crayon, marker, bath soap, paint, anything really) it makes a mark. This isn't about making anything in particular just connecting cause and effect. This goes on for about 6 months (again each child is an individual.) You will typically see a variety of marks- many look like scribbles, some look like dots. Children will do this anywhere, as it is about experimentation, “does the crayon also work on the wall? My shirt? The dog? The fridge?” Imogene at about 13 months old liked to finger paint on the kitchen floor :-) I watch a friends almost two year old from time to time and I remember him being enthralled with hitting a painted maraca on the side of my dishwasher. When I went over to stop him, I saw a sprinkling of red dots from the paint rubbing off onto the metal of the dishwasher. Needless to say, any object can be used! The marks/scribbles they make will change over time. Eventually you can observe more organized “Scribbles” and a child may start to name them and assign meaning to them. The first recognizable shape children make is called a mandala (a circle with an x through it) The first time I can remember Imogene naming a scribble was when one of her preschool teachers was pregnant and Imogene identified a little scribbled circle as “Baby Saylor.” Lines will go back and forth or up and down and may curve a little- children will also stop coloring off the paper and may try to “imitate” drawings made by someone else (for example if you are coloring with your child they may attempt to copy you or color over your drawing)

Preschematic (symbols/stories) stage (approx ages 3-4.5)

Around age 3ish children will start to become more representational. The first recognizable thing they draw is a person – I call them tadpoles or sperm because they start with a circle which typically has a face in the middle and two lines off the bottom as “legs” I had many many many 5 year olds in my kindergarten classes who still drew people that way. Children will develop other recognizable symbols- a house- a cat, things that are important to them or that they want to tell a story about-this can become involved and complex- working out issues they have with drawings. This can help them resolve problems and feel better.

Schematic stage (approx age 4-6)

Children eventually come up with a “set” of symbols and use them very orderly, the symbols are composed in the drawing with purpose. There is a baseline and all object sit on that line, usually this is the ground shown as a green line on the bottom of the picture. All other symbols are drawn over that green line. There will also be a blue strip (for sky) and a sun at the top. This style is repeated endlessly in drawing after drawing. Children will also make objects bigger and out of proportion, for example when drawing a family portrait, they may draw themselves very large and everyone else small, as they consider themselves most important. Children continue to use drawing as a way to work out issues or tell a story about themselves.

Ok, so I’m going stop here as non of our kids are older than 6 and most likely aren't showing any developmental signs past the schematic stage. I hope this was informational and that you have fun identifying some of the things your child is doing! Please feel free to post/ask any questions. I did try to be very clear although I often forget not everyone is familiar with art education :-)

MMM themes

List of themes:

• Apples (x2)
• Trees (x2)
• Pumpkins / orange
• Silver and gold / stars
• Gray / rain
• Cupcake birthday party
• Halloween Party
• Thanksgiving Party
• Christmas Party
• Music play
• Eric Carle (x2)
• Valentine's Day prep
• Cooking: Rice Krispie Treats
• Dr Seuss
•  Friendship
• Easter

Possibly Future Themes:

• Flags (Betsy Ross book)
• Planting seeds
• Wind (pinwheels or kites, parachute, bubbles)
• Other spring ideas:  flowers, bugs
• Rain (with puddle jumping??)
• Making ice cream
• Bees & honey
• Slumber party!
• Camping 
• Firemen and fire safety
• Police officers
• School (mid August)
• Beach (ffield trip with books, ideas for sand play)  
• Water (great for play in kiddie pool) 
• Snowmen (might have to wait until next year!)

Eric Carle Extras (Work in Progress)

Of course there were more awesome Eric Carle themed ideas than we could possibly do even in the two weeks.  Here are some links to explore!

More about Eric Carle:
The Offical Eric Carle Web Site
Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art
The Art of Eric Carle (book)


CRAFTS!!
GENERAL:
Collage

• Letters
• Animals
• Coasters

Painting tissue paper with food coloring
Experimenting with shade and tools


BUGS:
No sew caterpillar from a sock
Caterpillar from an egg carton     (scroll down)
Caterpillar from pony beads on a pipe cleaner 
Balloon print caterpillar
Paper plate and spoon butterfly
Stained glass butterfly
Foot print butterflies
Clothespin and pony bead butterfly
Toilet paper roll butterfly
Paper bag spider
30 different bug crafts

OTHER ANIMALS:
Seahorse from a paper plate
Brown Bear hand print book

VIDEOS!!
This play list has 6 Eric Carle stories.  Eric Carle reads The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Brown Bear himself, but the others are read by other people. 




ACTIVITIES!!
Very Hungry Caterpillar counting coloring sheets
Butterfly coloring sheet
Very Hungry Caterpillar Sensory Tub 
Live Butterfly Garden
Soap cloud (Little Cloud)


UNITS!!
Totally Tots
Mom to 2 Posh Divas - scroll to the bottom for links to almost 100 crafts and activities
Grouchy Ladybug unit
Brown Bear unit from 1+1+1=1
Hungry Caterpillar unit from 1+1+1=1
Eric Carle Author Study on Make Learning Fun
Brown Bear on Make Learning Fun
Hungry Caterpillar on Make Learning Fun

Valentine Books

Valentine's Day:
Lilly's Chocolate Heart by Kevin Henkes
Fancy Nancy: Heart to Heart by Jane O'Connor
Valentine Mice by Bethany Roberts
Happy Valentine's Day Mouse by Laura Joffe Numeroff
Where is Baby's Valentine? by Karen Katz
Max's Valentine by Rosemary Wells
Pinkalicious: Pink of Hearts
One Heart: A Valentine Counting Book by Maryann Cocca-Leffler

Hearts:
I Spy Little Hearts by Jean Marzollo



Love:
Never Too Little to Love by Jeanne Willis
Baby Max and Ruby: Love by Rosemary Wells
I Love You Stinky Face
The Runaway Bunny
Mama, Do You Love Me?
Guess How Much I Love You
Baby, I Love You
How Do I Love You?
I Love You Through and Through
Who Do You Love?
Mr. Pusskins: A Love Story
The Velveteen Rabbit
How Do Dinosaurs Say I Love You?
The I LOVE YOU Book by Todd Parr

Stars / Silver / Gold

I stuck to stories about stars in the sky, but there are many stories about star fish out there. 

Stars:
Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star by Rosemary Wells
Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star by Annie Kubler
I am a Star by Jean Marzollo
Fancy Nancy: Sees Stars by Jane O'Connor
I Like Stars by Margeret Wise Brown (Step into Reading series)
Five Wishing Stars by Treesha Runnells
On a Starry Night by Natalie Kinsey-Warnock
Stars by Mary Lyn Ray
Seeing Stars: Shining Star Light by Charles Hobson
Five Shiny Stars by Gabriella Buckingham
Stars! Stars! Stars! by Bob Barner
Our Stars by Anne Rockwell
The Big Dipper by Franklyn M Barnley
Zoo in the Sky: A Book of Animal Constellations by Jacqueline Mitton
Find the Constellations by H. A. Rey
The Stars by H. A Rey (I had these two by H.A. Rey growing up)
How to Catch a Star by Oliver Jeffers
The Sneetches by Dr Suess (not about stars in the sky, but had to include it because I love it and stars play an important role)
Draw Me a Star by Eric Carle (controversial themes of creation and one nude illustration) 



Silver / Gold
Siliverlicious by Victoria Kann
Goldilicous by Victoria Kann


I couldn't find anything else that looked good searching "silver" and "gold."  But here is what I have for color books we have read.

Colors:
Hello Kitty, Hello Color
Cat's Colors by Jane Caberea
A Red Train by Bernette Ford
My First Colors: Let's Learn Them All by Dawn Sirett (DK Publishers)
My Many Colored Days by Dr Suess (also about emotions)
Happy Baby Colors by Roger Priddy
Bright Baby Colors by Roger Priddy
My First Colors Board Book by Angela Wilkes
Spicy Hot Colors by Sherry Shahan
Color Zoo by Lois Elhert (also about shapes)
Color Farm by Lois Elhert (also about shapes)
I Love Colors by Margaret Miller
Baby's Colors by Karen Katz
Maisy's Colors by Lucy Cousins
Kipper's Book of Colors by Mick Inkpen