I’ve loved children’s books for as long as I can remember. When I became a Kindergarten teacher, I often used children’s books to springboard lessons and activities with my class. Years later, when I became a mom, I wanted children’s books to be a special part of my children’s lives as well. Reading to my kids before bed became a nighttime ritual we all enjoyed. Another activity we regularly enjoyed was baking. As such, children’s books that have food at the forefront were a natural bridge to kitchen adventures with my children. Here are a few of our favorite books to help spark cooking and baking fun with your kids!
It’s no wonder it's a classic and enjoyed over and over again by families all over the world. There are so many ways to use this book in the kitchen with kids, but my favorite way is to use it to learn about fruit.
I used to read this book to my children and students and then review the many types of fruit in the story. Afterwards, it was fun to make a rainbow fruit salad and munch away just like the hungry caterpillar! It is also helpful for identifying and discussing the differences between healthy vs. unhealthy foods.
The book also includes: early learning for babies and toddlers of first food recognition, especially fruits; learn days of the week, numbers 1-5, and primary colors; review beginning, middle, and end of a story arc; and scientific process of metamorphosis.
There are so many ways to spend a sunny summer day. Join The Very Hungry Caterpillar and explore everything the season has to offer!
Celebrate summer with The Very Hungry Caterpillar and his friends in this exploration of the season. Young readers can learn all about seasonal sensory experiences, like listening to noisy bugs, feeling the warm sunshine, smelling the yummy scents of a cookout, and so much more!
I love how many connections there are to the kitchen and literacy in this sweet story.
I read this book to my kids and then had fun planning (by writing and drawing just like Max) our own special cake to bake! Perhaps try your hands at baking an angel food cake with raspberry fluff icing just like Ruby’s, or maybe try Max’s “dirt” cake made of chocolate cake and gummy worms!
When my kids were younger, I always kept a little notepad in their play kitchen where they could play “restaurant" and take my order or make grocery lists. Before they could actually write, they would draw pictures to represent words, just like Max does in Bunny Cakes.
This book also includes: kitchen tool/appliance identification; reviewing basic cake baking ingredients; and pre-writing stage of drawing pictures to represent words.
It's Grandma's birthday, and Max wants to make her an icky, worm-infested cake. But Ruby says, "No, Max. We are going to make Grandma an angel surprise cake, with raspberry-fluff icing." Will Max let his bossy older sister keep him out of the kitchen? Or will they both become bunnies who bake?
I love to begin baking activities with children with a good book to get them excited and thinking ahead about our fun in the kitchen. Blueberries for Sal does exactly that!
I used to read this book to my kids before heading to a local farm to go blueberry or strawberry-picking in the summer months. Once home, we gathered our delectable harvest and baked a delicious berry crumble or cobbler! Extend the learning to different seasons by going apple-picking in the fall and making homemade apple pie, preserves, and applesauce.
Blueberries for Sal is a great story for teaching the whole process of farm-to-table. This book is also good for: learning about the seasons and the seasonality of produce; animal hibernation in winter; where we get blueberries (wild vs. farmed); the process of canning fruit; and mothers and their young.
Kuplink, kuplank, kuplunk! Sal and her mother a picking blueberries to can for the winter. But when Sal wanders to the other side of Blueberry Hill, she discovers a mother bear preparing for her own long winter. Meanwhile Sal's mother is being followed by a small bear with a big appetite for berries! Will each mother go home with the right little one? With its expressive line drawings and charming story, Blueberries for Sal has won readers' hearts since its first publication in 1948. "The adventures of a little girl and a baby bear while hunting for blueberries with their…
I love this story for getting kids excited to bake cookies!
I read this book to my kids before heading into the kitchen to bake homemade chocolate chip cookies just like the little mouse in the story. Just be sure to have a cold glass of milk on hand to go with the cookies! The kids love to pretend they're little mice while enjoying the cookies and see who can take the teeniest, tiniest bites of their cookies!
This book is also great for: discussing the idea of a full-circle story arc; introducing the idea of pairings; learning about cause/effect; and practicing memory recall with questions such as what happened first in the story, next, etc.
If a hungry little mouse shows up on your doorstep, you might want to give him a cookie. And if you give him a cookie, he'll ask for a glass of milk. He'll want to look in a mirror to make sure he doesn't have a milk mustache, and then he'll ask for a pair of scissors to give himself a trim....
This book is a great first introduction to Mouse, the star of the If You Give... series and a perennial favorite among children. With its spare, rhythmic text and circular tale, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie…
I love Gingerbread Baby for all its whimsy and sweet holiday joy it brings to our home.
My kids and I pore over the beautiful, detailed illustrations with clues on each page. I read this book to my kids ahead of an annual tradition of baking gingerbread cookies and decorating gingerbread houses during the December holidays. It's fun to use the gingerbread baby’s house as inspiration for our own decorated gingerbread houses!
This story is also great for: art appreciation of beautiful, detailed illustrations; reviewing concept of clues left by illustrators and making story predictions based on those clues; and a whimsical, holiday-time story.
Jan Brett's highly original version of the Gingerbread Boy story has quickly become a family classic. Now, the charming tale of Matti's clever trap for the runaway Gingerbread Baby is available as a beautiful board book for younger readers. And it still features a surprise lift-the-flap gingerbread house at the end!
Meet the Bakery Babies—the cutest and sneakiest babies in town! Join alongside these adorable babies while they sneak out of their cribs late at night and they make their way to the local bakery.
Bakery Babies is bursting with beautifully detailed illustrations by Ka Huen Kwong-Newman that are a literal feast for the eyes. The rhythmic tale written by Meredith Newman is whimsical and silly, and it elicits smiles and laughter from both young and old. It’s an ooey, gooey adventure you don’t want to miss! This rhythmic tale is a playful delight with charming illustrations bursting with sweetness on every page.
