Early Literacy Exploration: Vegetables Really are as Exciting as Firetrucks!
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Amazing Article From the Archives.. (originally published 8/20/2015)
*Editor’s note: This post now contains amazon affiliate links, BUT we would much rather you go the library or local bookstore for these books. Remember that you can reserve books online from the library and just pick them up.*
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What is an Early Literacy Exploration? When my son expresses a new interest in something, I like to seek out multisensory ways to explore it: books, songs, movement, outings, art and craft activities, and videos or interactive apps. It’s very powerful for young children to make connections between words, concepts, images, and experiences. These explorations will provide a powerful set of activities that inspire language development, imagination, encourage interests, and hopefully bring some early literacy learning to everyday experiences.
This week I am writing to you from our family vacation spot in northern Michigan. As an East Coast girl, I grew up not really considering Michigan a destination spot. Thanks to my husband’s side of the family, I have since learned the many pleasures of this special place, not the least of which is the abundance of affordable, fresh, seasonal produce. Yesterday, we visited a local farm, and my 22-month-old exclaimed, “vegetables” without the same passion he normally says, “fire truck.” It made me a little sad. Perhaps I am not making vegetables as exciting to him as fire trucks. In the last weeks we have to enjoy summer’s cornucopia of fresh food, I resolve to do better. Here are some ways to make vegetables as appealing as firetrucks:
Chant, sing, rhyme and rock out to fruits and vegetables. Rah, Rah, Radishes! A Vegetable Chant and Go, Go, Grapes! A Fruit Chant both by April Pulley Sayre, are a great place to start going cuckoo for carrots. The beautiful pictures make these books an excellent choice to take along to the supermarket or farmers market. Keep a copy in your play kitchen for inspiration.
Sing and rhyme to “Apples and Bananas.” This ode to the cornerstone of childhood fruit consumption also teaches vowel sounds and encourages improvisation. “The Corner Grocery Store” is another favorite that has fruits and vegetables doing all manners of silly things. The Brooklyn Children’s Museum has a fabulous play store in their permanent World Brooklyn exhibit.
Go to a farmers’ market or your local food co-op. Bring the board book We’re Going to the Farmer’s Market by Stefan Page. This is a fantastic book to use as a shopping list. For older kids, the newly published Market Maze by Roxie Munro is a Where’s Waldo-esque birds-eye view of the farm-to-plate experience. Grab some scrap paper and markers and make a map of the farmers’ market before, or after, your visit.
Play with your food. Mollie Katzen, the author of the iconic Moosewood Cookbook, has a number of brilliant illustrated cookbooks for young children. Salad People is what cooking with kids is all about: creativity, play, exploration, improvisation, and joy. Yes, also measuring, self-regulation, sequencing, and safety–but don’t advertise these elements. Make the Polka-Dot Rice with your farmers market bounty.
Make vegetables less scary and more approachable with the brilliant Saxton Freymann and Joost Elffers, creators Fast Food and How are you Peeling? Create one of these fun variations of ants on a log.
Delve into Lois Ehlert, and her many tributes to fruits and vegetables, including (but not limited to) Growing Vegetable Soup (complete with recipe), and Eating the Alphabet (keep a copy in the kitchen). I am such a huge Ehlert fan. I would like to live inside one of her books. Do yourself a huge favor and make collages with colorful paper based on her books and plaster them all over your refrigerator.
The Harry’s Healthy Garden app is a great interactive app for children ages 2-5. I always recommend interacting with young children as they navigate technology: ask questions, make observations, and take turns. In this app, Harry has 6 garden beds and children are prompted to help him do everything from digging holes and planting seeds, all the way to chopping the finished product and blending it into a smoothie. It’s a cool way to explain the many steps involved in farming, and a great way to entertain your kids on the way to visiting a nearby real farm.
And finally, before bedtime, watch this YouTube video of John Denver singing “The Garden Song” on The Muppet Show with a chorus of singing flowers, fruits and veggies. Please note and admire his excellent jean-on-jean look.
Looking for a great place to get these books? If in NYC, try your local library, or if you’d rather buy them, I like Books of Wonder and the Bank Street Bookstore. In Philly, we love Head House Books. To find an independent bookstore near you, visit Indiebound.
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Jessica Ralli coordinates early literacy programs for children 0-5 at the Brooklyn Public Library, and has an MA in Early Childhood Education from Teachers College, Columbia University. In her spare time, she likes making stuff and going places with her very active almost 2 year old son, Jack. Jessica lives in Brooklyn (15 years and counting) with her husband, son and their whippet/lab mix named Mia. Her opinions are her own and do not reflect those of BPL. She tweets her early literacy adventures at twitter.com/jessicaearlylit.