More Teaching Ideas

Create a Big Breakfast Book

Grade Level: Primary

Second-graders love "big books," says Amanda Higgins, learning specialist at Rolling Hills Elementary School in Denver, Colorado. To help teach children about the importance of eating breakfast, she suggests creating a big book for the classroom library. Each student contributes a page to the book.

What You Need:
• 12 x 18-inch paper — 1 per student
• Crayons, markers or paint
• Yarn, fasteners or other material for binding the book

What To Do:
1. Tell students La Milka, Muffin Go-more and the other Pyramid Pals want to make a book about breakfast and they need students' help.

2. Spend a few minutes talking about why breakfast is important and how we feel when we don't eat breakfast.

3. Reinforce the Five Food Groups taught in the Pyramid Cafe¨ by having children brainstorm a list of breakfast foods. As a group, review the list and decide to which food group each belongs.

4. Distribute a 12x18-inch piece of paper to each student. On the page, have them write or draw information such as:

• what foods they like to eat for breakfast
• who they eat breakfast with
• where they eat breakfast
• how they feel when they eat or don't eat breakfast

5. Have students illustrate their pages with crayons, markers or paint. Bind all of the pages together in a book and give it a title. In a reading circle, have each student share his or her page in the book.

6. Display the book in your classroom library.