Pre-K food theme ideas

[bijansmom]

I am thinking of doing a theme on food (i.e. healthy vs. junk, veggie vs. fruit, etc). Has anyone done this before -- remember this is my first year teaching preschool so I need help .

I had some ideas:

Food printing (using veggies and fruits)
making a food "tray" (using a large sheet of construction paper as the place mat, gluing a paper plate to it w/cutouts of food glued on, plastic utensils)

I may have this theme lead into nutrition and health with a focus on dental hygiene.

Any other ideas I can borrow, please.

Also, can you suggest some books -- so far I have Green Eggs and Ham and a book called I Would Never Not Eat Tomatoes.

THANKS!!!

[teacherkasey]

Make a face with a big mouth. Have the kids feed the mouth pictures of healthy food and put pictures of unhealthy foods in a basket or trash can.

Have the kids make collages of their favorite foods.

Make three plates, one for breakfast, one lunch and one dinner. Show the children pictures of foods for these three meals and have them put them on the paper plates.

Read Growing Vegetable Soup by Lois Ehlert and make your own vegetable soup.

Plant lima bean seeds or another kind of fruit or vegetable.

Let the children examine fruits and vegetables that have been cut open in the sensory table.

Use kitchen gadgets (spatula, spoon, fork, whisk, etc.) to paint with.

Cut shapes into potatoes and make dip them in paint to make potato prints.

[Upsadaisy]

Have food 'theme' days - one day green foods, the next orange, etc. Maybe each student could bring something in - or room parents could coordinate. Then set up a 'buffet' and sample the foods. You could then classify by sweet/sour, with seeds/without, spicy/not, and do a simple graph. You could vote for favorite foods. At the end of the unit, you could summarize the info with a picture graph.

Have a breakfast with parents - bagels and juice. Have an author's tea - with a reading of an original class big-book. Do matching with foods and holidays. Talk about foods which are associated with events or activities. Compare foods that grow in the ground with manufactured food products. Bake muffins in a toaster oven. Make fruit smoothies or milk shakes. Talk about foods that help you grow versus foods that don't help you grow.

A cute book to read for this theme is Gregory, the Terrible Eater (can't think of the author!) It's about a little goat whose parents think he is a terrible eater because he wants to eat healthy food, not the usual "junk food". It would be a great lead-in to classifying healthy food and junk food.