The book Full, Full, Full of Love, written by Trish Cooke and illustrated by Paul Howard (Walker Books, 5.99), is a celebration of the traditional family meal and of affectionate relationships across generations within the family.
Jay Jay enjoys a visit to Gran's house and helps her prepare a Sunday lunch that includes all kinds of exciting dishes. As members of Jay Jay's immediate and extended family arrive for the meal, a comfortable and warm scene unfolds.
This book can offer a useful starting point for sharing family cultures and traditions and for talking about people who are important in children's lives.
Adult-led activities
Story time
Share the story with the children.
Key learning intentions
To enjoy a story, listening attentively and contributing appropriate comments or actions
To show an awareness of rhythm and rhyme
To talk about significant people and events within their family or community
Adult:child ratio 1: 6
Resources
* Full, Full, Full of Love by Trish Cooke (Walker books) * photographs of family meals Preparation
* Make sure that all practitioners are familiar with the story and aware of the children's own family circumstances.
* Ask parents, carers and practitioners to contribute photographs of family meals and celebrations, such as birthdays, festivals, weddings.
Activity content
* Gather interested children together in a warm and comfortable area.
* Introduce them to the main characters in the story, explaining that they all belong to the same family.
* Read the story, encouraging the children to join in with the rhythmic jingles included in the text.
* Create opportunities for the children to talk about their own experiences of family gatherings and meals and use the photographs as a starting point.
* Be sensitive towards the children's personal family circumstances and broaden discussions to include friends, carers and the wider community where appropriate.
* Encourage the children to show respect for differences between family cultures, for example, looking at the various ways in which birthdays are celebrated within the group
* Talk about the different generations within families and individual relationships to each other. Discuss the different names that children call grandparents.
* Ask the children about the types of food they eat at everyday family meals and at special meals.
Extending learning Key vocabulary Names for grandparents, such as, Gran, Granny, Nan, Nana, Grandad, Grandpa.
Other familial names, for example, Mum, Mummy, Mam, Dad, Daddy, Auntie, Uncle, sister, brother, cousin, niece, nephew, son, daughter, grandchild.
Vocabulary related to meals, for example, lunch, dinner, tea, breakfast, table, cutlery, food names.
Questions to ask
* Which is your favourite meal of the day?
* Where do you like to eat your meals in your house?
* Who do you like to invite for special meals at your house?
* Where is your favourite place to go for a meal? Why?
* What kind of food would you choose if you were having a party/special meal for your birthday?
* Have you been to a wedding? What kind of food did you eat?
Extension ideas
* Make the book available in the book area over a period of time to enable children to revisit ideas and retell the story. Provide other props such as a tablecloth, plates, cutlery and pans.
* On the child's entry to the setting, encourage parents to share information with key workers about the child's daily/weekly routines and important people in their lives.
* Invite grandparents to the setting to play alongside children or to share skills and knowledge.
* Plan a circle time forum to encourage children to talk about places where they feel secure and about how important people in their lives make them feel loved. Use a puppet to support them in expressing thoughts and ideas.
Always be sensitive to child protection issues when opening up such discussions.
Dining out
Focus on family or group meal times and children's favourite dishes.
Key learning intentions
To show interest in, and enjoy, cultural differences
To observe mealtime conventions and adhere to codes and expectations of behaviour at meal times
To understand that writing can be used to convey meaning
To look at features of different foods and to find out about a range of food preparation techniques
Adult:child ratio 1:4
Resources
* Recipe books * information from parents and carers (see 'preparation') * appropriate foods * aprons * kitchen utensils * serving dishes * plates, cutlery
Preparation
* Talk with the children about food (for example, likes and dislikes) in a natural context such as meal or snack times.
* Make opportunities for discussing children's favourites home dishes with parents, grandparents and carers. Ask for any special recipes.
* Be aware of any children with food allergies, vegetarians, vegans or other dietary requirements.
* Plan an appropriate time for taking a group of children shopping and a time to prepare the chosen dish.
* When cooking with children, prepare surfaces hygienically and take care to ensure safety and hygiene at all times.
Activity content
* Gather the children together at a time when they are open to engaging with you.
* Remind them of the story of Jay Jay and the Sunday lunch with his family.
Tell them about your favourite dish and context for eating a meal.
* Use recipe books as a visual prop and to show children where ingredients and instructions are written down to help in preparing dishes.
* Ask the children about the meals they enjoy and make a list of the dishes they discuss.
* As a group, encourage the children to decide on a dish they would like to make and eat in nursery.
* With the children, make a shopping list of ingredients needed (you may need to confer with parents before being able to do this!).
* Take the children shopping for the ingredients, encouraging them to participate in, for example, decision-making, counting, weighing and packing. Talk about healthy foods and the importance of a balanced diet in terms that the children will understand.
* Involve the same group of children in preparing, cooking (if necessary) and eating the ingredients to make the selected dish. Encourage them to serve their food to others and to talk about the ingredients and how it was prepared.
* Repeat the activity with other groups of children. Explore a range of foods and encourage the children to try new foods (never insist that they do). Talk also about the different smells that emerge as the food is prepared.
Extending learning
Key vocabulary
Names of ingredients and utensils; descriptive language such as sweet, sour, hot, cold, hard, soft
Questions to ask
* What is your favourite meal?
* How does Daddy make that meal?
* What does Mummy use to make chapattis?
* Where could we buy potatoes?
* Can you find a photograph of spaghetti bolognese in the recipe book?
* What foods do you think we would need to make spaghetti bolognese?
* Shall we look at the ingredients in the book to see what we will need?
* What will we need to cook the meat in/ cut up the onions/wash the strawberries/ peel the carrots/mash the potatoes?
Extension ideas
* In full-day settings, look at mealtime provision in terms of the experience you are offering children. As far as possible, try to emulate a family mealtime, thinking carefully about issues such as groupings, equipment, the adult role and children's responsibilities (for example, laying the table and making choices). Review snack times to ensure that these, too, are quality experiences for children offering a range of foods.
* Ensure that, within the staff team, you are consistent in your expectations of children's behaviour at mealtimes and that children understand what is expected of them. Involve children in drawing up some mealtime 'rules'.
* Make a camera available for children to take home and record special meals with families and friends. Ask children and parents to take photographs of favourite dishes from home and use the photographs, with instructions, to compile a recipe book. Make copies of the book and share the recipes with all families.
Child-initiated learning
Home corner
Additional resources and adult support
* Provide cooking and baking equipment such as pans, wooden spoons, chopping boards, colanders, metal utensils (safe for children to use), timers, casserole dishes, baking tins and trays, mixing bowls.
* Provide a tablecloth, plates, bowls, cutlery, plastic glasses, serving dishes and spoons.
* Involve the children in reviewing provision in the home corner with a view to making meals and holding family gatherings.
* Encourage parents and carers to contribute to collections of empty food packets and boxes and, with the children, find places to store these in the home-corner kitchen.
* Play alongside and with the children 'cooking' favourite dishes and planning special meals.
* Offer mark-making tools and equipment such as pens, invitation pads, greetings cards and memo pads, and model some appropriate uses of this equipment.
* Introduce recipe books and cards and look through these with children.
* Collect family photographs and, with the children, display these in frames and albums in the home corner.
Play possibilities
* Planning parties and making meals
* Reading recipes, writing shopping lists
* Pretending to go shopping
* Talking about the story Full, Full, Full of Love
* Laying the table and serving other children with 'meals'.
* Making links with the dough area during 'cooking' play.
Possible learning outcomes Uses language to communicate ideas and negotiate roles Makes marks to communicate meaning Understands that information can be found in books Handles objects with control Engages in imaginative and role play and represents first-hand experiences through play Music and sound area (outdoor) Additional resources and adult support
* Collect metal pans and kitchen utensils (making sure that they are safe for children to handle), for example, frying pans, sauce pans, pan lids, slotted spoons, whisks, fish slices, potato mashers, baking tins, cooling trays.
* With the children, find a place in the outdoor area to hang these objects - for example, on string between two tree branches or on the rungs of a fence.
* Offer a range of spoons as 'beaters' for example, plastic, metal, wooden.
* Provide plastic bottles with lids (washed out thoroughly) and materials such as dried pasta, rice and lentils. Support children in putting these into the bottles, using a funnel if appropriate.
* Make music with children shaking the filled bottles and beating the hanging metal objects.
* Model the use of sound and music vocabulary, for example, 'loud', 'quiet', 'soft', 'fast', 'slow'.
Play possibilities
* Experimenting with a range of tools and materials to make sounds
* Making own musical instruments and selecting objects to use
* Mixing materials in shakers to create different sounds
* Talking about the sounds made and using voices to try to reproduce them
* Playing 'instruments' alongside other children and forming a 'band'
Possible learning outcomes
Distinguishes one sound from another
Counts beats
Engages in activities requiring hand-eye co-ordination and uses large motor movements in play and learning
Explores different sounds
Sand (indoor/outdoor)
Additional resources and adult support
* Provide pans, bowls, mixing spoons, whisks, spatulas and jugs of water.
* Offer a range of materials that children can use as 'ingredients', such as beads, buttons, pebbles, matchsticks, shells.
* Introduce mild washing-up liquid. Check if any children have sensitive skin or any allergies. If necessary, demonstrate whisking sand, water and washing-up liquid to create 'whipped sand'.
* Support the children's play by adding additional resources as necessary.
* Play with children, following their ideas and talking with them about their food and mealtime experiences.
* Challenge children's thinking by asking, 'What do you think will happen if we add more water/sand?', 'What could you use as carrots in your soup mixture?'
Play possibilities
* Mixing sand and water together and experimenting with consistency
* Filling and emptying containers
* Making up recipes and dishes
* Pretending to make meals at home, in cafes and restaurants
Possible learning outcomes
Has a strong exploratory impulse and displays high levels of involvement at a self chosen activity
Uses language to recreate experiences
Uses mathematical language such as heavier, lighter, bigger, smaller
Comments on changes that take place when materials are mixed
Uses tools to effect material changes
Uses one object to represent another
Areas of learning
Personal, social and emotional development
Communication, language and literacy
Mathematical development
Knowledge & understanding of the world
Physical development Creative development
