Fourteen 1st Grade students at Macdonough School have been invited to join Cooking for Literacy, a Recess-Plus Club.
Once a week children will join Miss Chaelyn in the Family Resource Center to participate in fun enrichment activities based upon Monica Wellington’s Pizza at Sally’s. The club, which runs during recess, will last for six sessions and includes science, art, music, cooking and healthy choice activities. The final sessions of the club will be “cooking days.” We will be making English muffin pizzas and “dessert” pizzas for a special treat.
Grade 1-Cooking for Literacy:
Session 1: Introduction
During the first session of Cooking for Literacy, we got to know the members of our club using a variety of pizza songs and pizza rhymes.
One went like this:
Down around the corner at the pizza shop
There’s lots of pizza slices with pepperoni on top.
Along came (name) all alone.
S/he bought a slice of pizza and s/he brought it home.
(Name) How many pieces of pepperonis are on your slice?
Each child was able to pick a pizza slice bookmark with differing amounts of pepperoni.
We shared the book Pizza at Sally’s by Monica Wellington out loud. We discussed the book at length and spent the remainder our time decorating our book tags and pizza slice bookmarks. The children took home their very own hardcover copy of the book to keep and share with their family.
Session 2: The Science of Dough
We started the club by echo reading the section of Pizza at Sally’s that focused on making and kneading dough for the crust. Then, using a play dough recipe, we learned how to double a simple science recipe.
½ cup salt
½ cup water
1 cup flour
food coloring
“Measure and mix with water and yeast.” We got mathematical and discussed how to measure the amounts needed for the recipe if all we had was a ½ cup measuring cup to use. We talked about dry ingredients and wet ingredients and then combined them all in the mixing bowl.
The new word we focused on was the verb “to knead.” We used the book to show that kneading involves pushing, pulling, punching, pounding and folding. Each child had a chance to knead the large dough ball into small pieces of workable play dough.
The children bagged their dough to bring home. They were encouraged to show their families their scientific dough and share the section of the book our activity was based on.
Cooking for Literacy- Pizza at Sally’s: Grade 1-Session 3
The Food Pyramid was the focus of our third session of Cooking for Literacy: Pizza at Sally’s. We talked about how pizzas are unique when it comes to the food pyramid. On the food pyramid, they are considered “mixed,” because they can have elements from all of the food group sections, depending on what toppings you include. Using a food pyramid pocket chart and photo cards of various types of foods, we learned where to place food items on the pyramid. We tried to make a "perfect picnic" (one item from each food group) by guessing what our peers were picking for their "perfect picnic." We also discussed making healthy food choices and avoiding too many fats, sweets, and oils.
Cooking for Literacy: Pizza at Sally’s: Session 4
Students were able to show their artistic sides during Session 4, by mimicking the collage-like art style of Monica Wellington, our book’s author. We shared the book's art with each other, noting the places in the book where our author/illustrator used various true life photos. Sunflowers, mushrooms, and her food label hat were just some of the "real" pictures. Following the book, the children were able to pick one picture from an array of magazine photographs. This photograph was glued to their paper. Using colored pencils, watercolor markers, and/or crayons, the children created hand-drawn “scenes” around their true-life photographs just like Monica Wellington. The storybook, Pizza at Sally’s was available while they created their pictures if they needed some additional artistic inspiration.
Grade 1-Cooking for Literacy:
Session 1: Introduction
During the first session of Cooking for Literacy, we got to know the members of our club using a variety of pizza songs and pizza rhymes.
One went like this:
Down around the corner at the pizza shop
There’s lots of pizza slices with pepperoni on top.
Along came (name) all alone.
S/he bought a slice of pizza and s/he brought it home.
(Name) How many pieces of pepperonis are on your slice?
Each child was able to pick a pizza slice bookmark with differing amounts of pepperoni.
We shared the book Pizza at Sally’s by Monica Wellington out loud. We discussed the book at length and spent the remainder our time decorating our book tags and pizza slice bookmarks. The children took home their very own hardcover copy of the book to keep and share with their family.
Session 2: The Science of Dough
We started the club by echo reading the section of Pizza at Sally’s that focused on making and kneading dough for the crust. Then, using a play dough recipe, we learned how to double a simple science recipe.
½ cup salt
½ cup water
1 cup flour
food coloring
“Measure and mix with water and yeast.” We got mathematical and discussed how to measure the amounts needed for the recipe if all we had was a ½ cup measuring cup to use. We talked about dry ingredients and wet ingredients and then combined them all in the mixing bowl.
The new word we focused on was the verb “to knead.” We used the book to show that kneading involves pushing, pulling, punching, pounding and folding. Each child had a chance to knead the large dough ball into small pieces of workable play dough.
The children bagged their dough to bring home. They were encouraged to show their families their scientific dough and share the section of the book our activity was based on.
Cooking for Literacy- Pizza at Sally’s: Grade 1-Session 3
The Food Pyramid was the focus of our third session of Cooking for Literacy: Pizza at Sally’s. We talked about how pizzas are unique when it comes to the food pyramid. On the food pyramid, they are considered “mixed,” because they can have elements from all of the food group sections, depending on what toppings you include. Using a food pyramid pocket chart and photo cards of various types of foods, we learned where to place food items on the pyramid. We tried to make a "perfect picnic" (one item from each food group) by guessing what our peers were picking for their "perfect picnic." We also discussed making healthy food choices and avoiding too many fats, sweets, and oils.
Cooking for Literacy: Pizza at Sally’s: Session 4
Students were able to show their artistic sides during Session 4, by mimicking the collage-like art style of Monica Wellington, our book’s author. We shared the book's art with each other, noting the places in the book where our author/illustrator used various true life photos. Sunflowers, mushrooms, and her food label hat were just some of the "real" pictures. Following the book, the children were able to pick one picture from an array of magazine photographs. This photograph was glued to their paper. Using colored pencils, watercolor markers, and/or crayons, the children created hand-drawn “scenes” around their true-life photographs just like Monica Wellington. The storybook, Pizza at Sally’s was available while they created their pictures if they needed some additional artistic inspiration.
