Kitchens... with a twist!

I am in the middle (optimistically the second half) of a kitchen renovation and all I could come up with for "K" this round (for Mrs. Nesbitt's Round 10 of ABC Wednesday - check it out!!)  was Kitchen - with a twist.

kitch·en / ˈkichən/ (from The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English, 2009)• n. 1. a room or area where food is prepared and cooked. ∎  a set of fixtures, cabinets, and appliances that are sold together and installed in such a room or area: a complete kitchen at a bargain price. ∎  cuisine: the dried shrimp pastes of the Thai kitchen. 2. inf. the percussion section of an orchestra. 3. [as adj.] (of a language) in an uneducated or domestic form: kitchen Swahili. 
Some fun kitchen facts:

• Fun Tudor kitchen facts:
• The kitchen at Hampton Court provided food for up to 600 people while smaller palaces and mansions might cater for 200 people;
• Hampton Court kitchens were staffed by over 200 people, providing two meals a day for the 600-800 members of King Henry VIII's court.
• The annual provision of meat for the Tudor court is estimated to have stood at 1,240 oxen; 8,200 sheep; 2,330 deer; 760 calves; 1,870 pigs; and 53 wild boar.  This was washed down with 600,000 gallons of ale.
• Click here to find out about Tudor banquets- which were for special guests after the main meat courses

•  Hoosier cabinets - cabinets that organized ALL the obvious (and some not so obvious) kitchen needs into one hutch were introduced in the early 1900's and they provided a huge step towards moving 'homemakers' into "fitted kitchens." Aside from a counter top, small drawers and cabinets within the cupboard, the Hoosier cabinet also had racks and hardware to organize food staples, a combination flour bin/sifter, a tin hopper, and a sugar bin.  Special Hoosier glass jars were also manufactured by the Hoosier Manufacturing Co. of New Castle Indiana for coffee and tea canisters, a salt box and four to eight spice jars. The inside of the cupboard doors had cards with measurement conversion information, sample menus, and household tips.
• The percentage of American families who owned a mechanical refrigerator jumped from 44 to 80% between 1940-1950;

While kitchens are places of nourishment, nurturing, and often the place to find the best family conversations, they are also sources of accidents and of learning. Regarding accidents, children in kitchens should be supervised and taught how to carefully and safely prepare food.  Regarding kitchen learning, here's what kids can and should learn in a kitchen:

• Attention to details - whether following a recipe or safety rules, when working in a kitchen you have to focus carefully on what you're doing.
• Chemistry - cooking, and baking in particular, are ALL about chemistry and how and when to mix specific amounts of given ingredients.  Stray from the proportions and your dish will stray too!
• Math - cooking and following recipes is understanding measurement, ratios, and proportions, and often involves some form of calculation (for example, changeing cups to tablespoons or quarts to ounces).
• Reading - my husband's grandmother taught her kids to read - in the kitchen - with cereal boxes. Reading recipes is a great reading resource, especially for reluctant readers.
• History - kitchens tell stories about families, men and women's changing family and kitchen/cooking roles, new technologies and appliances, and shifts in values and everyday life.
• Health - cleanliness, food expiration dates, awareness of what's going into your food, and general awareness about how what you are eating is essential for overall health and later independence. Being aware of what goes into making food will help children make more educated and health-based food decisions. 

While there are TONS of incredible children's books about food...(here are some of my favorites)...:

• Thunder Cake (Patricia Polacco) 
• If You Give a Mouse A Cookie (Laura Numeroff) 
• Bread and Jam for Frances (Russell Hoban)
• The Very Hungry Caterpillar (Eric Carle) 
• Bake Sale (Sara Varon)
• Chato's Kitchen (Gary Soto)
• Blueberries for Sal (Robert McCloskey)
• The Chocolate Touch (Patrick Skene Catling)
• Fannie in the Kitchen: The Whole Story from Soup to Nuts of How Fannie Farmer Invented Recipes with Precise Measurements (Deborah Hopkinson)
• Kitchen Dance (Maurie J. Mamning)
• Strega Nona (Tomie DePaolo)
• Pascual and the Kitchen Angels (Tomie DePaolo)
• Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs (Judi and Ronald Barrett)
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Roald Dahl) 
• Chicken Soup with Rice (Maurice Sendak) 
• In the Night Kitchen (Maurice Sendak)
• Green Eggs and Ham (Dr. Seuss) 
• How to Eat Fried Worms (Thomas Rockwell)
• Piggies in the Kitchen (Michelle Meadows) 

...there are not many stories that take place primarily in kitchens.  Maybe one reason is that until recently, kitchens were where food was prepared, and the dining rooms were where the family met, ate, and interacted. Now as more people are preparing and eating food more and more in kitchens maybe this will change.  There really is so much kitchens have to offer stories - in terms of wild adventures, yarns to tell, and life lessons to learn.

I can think of nine kids' books that center around a kitchen: 

• Bake Sale (Sara Varon) - while the story centers around a baker and bakery and not  home kitchen, much of the story takes place in a kitchen. In this graphic novel, Sara Varon weaves a salivating tale of friendship, chemistry, baking, and marching bands. It is about friends using creative ideas to help each other with life's dreams and unavoidable obstacles. Life's solutions (at least in this book) revolve around baking. There are seven recipes from classic cupcakes and cookies to sugared flower petals to marzipan.  It is wonderfully heart-warming and creative and in addition to being about friendship, we have a glimpse of how a bakery kitchen is run. Please see this YouTube clip for more about the book.

• Thunder Cake (Patricia Polacco) is based on the author's true life story of how her grandmother helped her overcome her fear of thunder.  It seems the author hated thunder and so her grandmother helped her face that fear by gathering ingredients from the barn (milk and eggs) and the pantry shed outside the house for her Thunder Cake recipe, and then baking it together in the kitchen as a thunder storm approached and passed.  This is a wonderful story of love, fear, distraction, and the powerful art of baking.  While it doesn't take place only in a kitchen, they do bake the cake together in the kitchen for half the book, and the recipe is included for you and your kids to bake together in your kitchen.  This is also a great book for grandparents to read and then bake with their grandchildren.  It is one of my favorite books.
• Chato's Kitchen (Gary Soto) is about Chato, the coolest cat in East L.A. who couldn't be happier when a family of mice move into the barrio, but soon realizes that he is getting more than he can handle with the surprise guest the mice bring along.  This is an ALA Notable Book.

• Kitchen Dance (Maurie J. Mamning) - about a young girl who wakes in the night to mysterious, inviting noises.  She wakes up her brother and together sneak downstairs to see (to their amazement and delight) their parents dancing and singing as they clean up and put food away. The kids are swept into the dance's embrace and slowly the song changes to a lullaby, lulling the kids to sleep.

• Piggies in the Kitchen (Michelle Meadows) is about the fun, mess, and surprises that ensue as Mama leaves for the day and her piggies sneak into the kitchen to bake.

• Pascual and the Kitchen Angels (Tomie DePaolo) - When Pascual was born, angels flew down and sang to him from the trees.  As a boy, Pascual san to the sheep and they sang back to him. As a young man, Pascual joins the Franciscans and when sent to work in the kitchen, has no clue what to do.  The angels return, flying down and a delicious dinner appears, the friars soon realize Pascual is special.

• Fannie in the Kitchen: The Whole Story from Soup to Nuts of How Fannie Farmer Invented Recipes with Precise Measurements (Deborah Hopkinson) - is a delightful slice of history as it tells Fannie Farmer's story - how she was a mother's helper for the Shaw family, taught their daughter Marcia how to cook, and of Marcia's influence on her to record her recipes and exact directions for measuring and cooking into one of the first modern cookbooks.  It even has Fannie Farmer's famous griddle cake recipe to inspire young readers and young chefs.

• The Borrowers (Mary Norton) is the first in a series of stories about tiny people who live in peoples' homes who secretly "borrow" things to survive. The story begins when Arrietty (a Borrower) is seen by a 'human bean', while scampering under the kitchen floorboards in an old English manor.  The adventure continues from there.

• In the Night Kitchen (Maurice Sendak) is the story of Micky's surreal dream/journey though a baker's kitchen where he helps with the creation of a cake ready by morning.  Note that Mickey, at the beginning of the dream, falls into a giant pot of batter, loses his pajamas and is naked for most of the story.  This, along with the surreal dream has made this 1970 story somewhat controversial.  While not one of my favorites, my husband and kids actually enjoyed reading it together.  Also, the book, while a true product of the 1970's is a bit 'tripppy' but  there is a lot of imagery and imagination and wonderfully exciting art work. 

For In the Night Kitchen fans, here's an animated version adapted and directed by Gene Deitch found on YouTube:

What do you think? 

Whether you read about food, read about kitchens, or view kitchens on television or in the movies (Ratatouille was one of my favorites), there is a lot of fun and learning that goes on.  Please share some of your kitchen fun and learning (links to kitchen/kid ideas are also welcome) in the comments, or include other books and stories centering around the kitchen (that I failed to think of).

Thank you for stopping by and joining the conversation.  

Have a great week.

Visual/Verbal Literacy - Part 2: Reluctant Readers and Brick Walls

Aside from my confession below, I can think of no better way to begin this post than with another slam poem by Taylor Mali:

Confession:  I remember being in high school, home sick and asking my mom to read aloud to me.  She refused, saying I was too old.  With some serious prodding from me, she relented and read to me, and I will always remember and love her for it.  Even now, I beg my husband to read aloud to me too.  I just love it.  I love hearing his soothing voice - it relaxes me. I don't think you're never too old to be read aloud to. 

Aside from the intimacy of being read to, reading aloud helps kids hear and integrate the rhythm and sequence of language.  It is an excellent way to encourage reluctant readers and boost their language skills.

Overview: Getting reluctant readers can be as much fun and as effective as hitting your head against a brick wall!  As my last blog was on visual literacy - an important skill to emphasize for all, especially reluctant readers, I want to spend more time now on visual literacy.  With summer here and school out, there is a lot parents can do to help build kids' literacy skills.  Here are some suggestions:

Read aloud at bed time, down time, or on a stormy afternoon (I recommend your reading Thundercake by Patricia Polacco and then bake a thundercake together). You can even read aloud at breakfast - if you're awake enough and have the energy - read cereal boxes together, read or summarize a newspaper or magazine article, or even share cool blog posts together.

Model reading independently- let your kids see you reading for fun and for work.  Let them see you enjoying it - finding humor, excitement, information!

Tell Stories -  making up crazy, zany ones or writing/telling serious ones.  The point is to become more comfortable using words.

Read wordless books and tell you the story:  Reading wordless books offers a wonderful opportunity for your child to become more comfortable with books and with using his or her words.  The more your kids use words (spoken, heard, or written), the easier it will be to USE them.

So, from as soon as your child can talk encourage him or her to read books aloud to you or silently to themselves -  just looking at the illustrations and telling the story (also great practice with visual literacy).  Here are some more of my favorite wordless books (I have recommended others in previous posts):

Looking Down by Steve Jenkins

The Lion & the Mouse by Jerry Pinkney

Flotsam by David Wiesner 

Little Star by Antonin Louchard

Good Dog, Carl by Alexandra Day

Make up stories - (even or especially zany, crazy stories) - the point is to play with words

Rhyme - play rhyming games, make rhyming poems (zany crazy poems work well here too) - rhyming provides opportunities to play with phonemes (word sounds).  The more familiar you are with word sounds, the easier they will be to visually recognize in print.

Graphic novels great motivators integrate visual and verbal literacies.  Check out some of my other posts with graphic novel suggestions:

http://departingthetext.blogspot.com/2011/06/visual-vs-visual-literacy-no-contest.html

http://departingthetext.blogspot.com/2011/05/science-fiction-skills-chills-and.html

http://departingthetext.blogspot.com/2011/03/learning-with-laughter.html

 http://departingthetext.blogspot.com/2011/03/kicking-back-bitwhats-all-this-about.html

http://departingthetext.blogspot.com/2011/01/great-reads-for-avid-4th-and-5th-grade.html

http://departingthetext.blogspot.com/2010/10/graphic-novels-at-home-and-in-school.html 

Encourage your kids to read alone - even if it's a picture book.  

Make sure your kids are reading high interest books on their "INDENDENT READING LEVEL" An independent reading level is the reading level the person can read comfortably with little to no error.  It is the reading level that is "easy" but engaging.  If your child is putting down a book mid-reading it is either because she or he has lost interest in the content, or because the book was too challenging, or both.

How to find an independent reading level? You can ask your child's teacher and/or you can experiment yourself.  Have your child read aloud to you.  If he or she stumbles over words when reading AND/OR cannot define words read, then that reading selection is too difficult to read independently.



Some high interest easier reading books for weak readers:  These books are entertaining but the language is easier and there are visual cues to help with comprehension and word recognition.

• Sophisticated picture books
• Horrible Histories by Terry Deary are wonderfully funny and often colorful and unusual stories from history or science.  There are also occasional illustrations to further express a point.  This a wonderful series of books for middle school students of ALL reading levels.
• The Magic Tree House series are easy to read stories (second grade reading level) that older, less talented readers can enjoy reading as well.

NOT SURE?  Ask a Librarian!  They are fantastic resources for appropriate reading materials for kids of all ages.

Join or establish a parent/child book club.  Talk to your local librarian for assistance.  I did this with my daughter and it was a lot of fun.

The world around you is an oyster of words to read and write - take advantage of this! Read signs when driving.  Make up real and crazy signs.  Read and write blogs together - create meme challenges. Leave notes for each other.  Create and write cards. 

The best way to encourage reluctant readers is to make sure they are reading at the right level and to surround them with books, and reading and writing opportunities.

What's your opinion?