HIT: What's cooking ideas for NLW

[Susan Sheil <smsheil@LAKEFIELD.NET>]

What=B9s Cooking Ideas

Three stones: _Stone Soup_ is a perfect recipe for libraries.
Consider sponsoring a book and/or recipe exchange
Signs for variety of sections:
        Recipes for success (research or self-help)
        Food for thought (philosophy or fiction)
        What=B9s eating you? (science or psychology)
        Measure for measure (math & science)
        Sievilizations (history)
        Just desserts (mind candy)
        Pullet surprise ... in the poultry section

Designate one day per grade level and cook for them:
        begin with an explanation
        wash hands and prepare whatever our cooking dish is
        while it=B9s baking, etc. I read the story that goes with the food
        pass out napkins, etc. while dish cools
        then enjoy
        usually takes a minimum of 45 minutes per class
        helpful to have a few volunteers

Display books that feature food in the story and have real food or art=20
type facts of it.
I keep a list of books that have recipes in them under the subject=20
heading RECIPES - Fiction.=20
A library tea party featuring Alice and her friends (the Mad Hatter,=20
Cheshire Cat)

American Girls collection has cookbooks for each historical girl. Do a=20
bit of historical cooking. Felicity has a video on a colonial tea=20
party. We shared it and then announced a tea party to be held. Ladies=20
came from the homemakers group dressed in period costumes and shared=20
various poetry, stories or family items. Period food and beverages=20
were served.

Another Mad Hatter Tea Party idea had children making humorous hats=20
based on Alice in Wonderland.  The students wore the hats to the tea=20
party.

Highlight different types of cookbooks in your library, especially=20
those for special diets. You can spotlight different cuisines -=20
Italian, Chinese, etc. Maybe if you=B9re brave, you can have a cooking=20
demonstrations or two.

One person wrote: Two years ago we ran a similar theme. We had a fancy=20
feast in the cafeteria one day. We offered many ideas to teacher to=20
use recipes associated with books. A lot of teachers did cooking in=20
the classroom. We had a day to dress up as a chef. We had the older=20
grades find recipes for the countries they were reporting on at the=20
time.

You could use books like Strega Nona, Cloudy with a chance of=20
Meatballs, The Bread Winner. Be sure to make a big deal about how=20
USUALLY we don=B9t have food in the library, but this is an exception.=20
There is a cute story by Frank Asch call Popcorn, one by Tomie dePaola=20
called The Popcorn Book and another one called Pop Corn and Ma=20
Goodness. If you cooked your popcorn in on of those hot air corn=20
poppers your school would smell of it all week. =B3Things are poppin=B9 i=
n=20
the library!=B2

Visual picture recipe for a successful library including: necessary=20
ingredients in text and with pictures, then the =8Cmixing or procedure.=B9=
=20
(should make a good poster or display.)
Good cooking music like =B3Someone=B9s in the kitchen with Dinah.=B2

One person wrote: several years ago we did =B3You never know what=B9s=20
POPPIN=B9 in the LMC.=B2 We used popcorn as our theme and all-week=20
activities included: popcorn sculptures, voting of POPular books,=20
popcorn =8Cpop=B9 quiz, popcorn games, popcorn trivia. We used the=20
school=B9s large popcorn popper that is used at games and we made enough=20
small bags of popcorn for each student in our school (600.) It was=20
very successful and enjoyed by everyone. LMC assistants decided on=20
prizes to award for trivia, games and contests that we had. Prizes can=20
be a bookmark, sucker or sticker.=20

Thanks to everyone who responded. These are some great ideas.
Sue Sheil
Franklin Elementary School
Manitowoc WI=20
smsheil@lakefield.net