Yummy for my Tummy

I shared a National Nutrition Month Special Storytime this week at my library.  We annually collaborate with our county's Health Dept. to share nutrition and exercise information with parents and caregivers. It's a great opportunity to talk about N is for Nutrition and explain that big word to little children.  I love to hear big words coming from preschool children and I usually have a couple of word lovers in storytime that will use that word at home later!  I used one of my favorites for this nutrition theme, Burger Boy by Alan Durant. I had planned to use Keith Baker's adorable book, 1-2-3 Peas but ran out of time.  I used a counting color fruit rhyme (here) that I made up a long time ago with some not-flannel board props.   I used Google images of the fruits and diecut numbers and mounted them on different colors of construction paper and then laminated the papers. I just flipped the pages as I said the rhyme.  A great followup to the fruit rhyme was Laurie Berkner's  fun song, Fruit Salad Salsa!
I also adapted a rhyme I found here that is a take off of  Brown Bear, Brown Bear.  I call it, Brown Bread, Brown Bread. (Try saying that fast three times! LOL!)  I added some more foods and changed the ending to be more like the book's ending with healthy children looking at ...(name all the foods we used).    I used small/medium sized Google images of the foods and printed them on card stock, laminated and cut out enough to hand out to the children.  As I said the rhyme and put a picture of the food on my 'plate' on the flannel board, the children holding that food brought it up and put it on the large plastic plate I was holding on my lap.  I pointed to each food on the flannel board as we recapped all the healthy foods we had seen. We also talked about the foods we like to eat!  I gently discouraged saying 'yuck' about foods that other people liked.  I pointed out that we all like different things and that's o.k.!
Here is one of my favorite rhymes and flannel prop that goes along with  1-2-3 Peas:

Five Little Peas
Five little peas in a pea pod pressed,
One grew, two grew and so did all the rest.
They grew and they grew and they did not stop!
Until one day the pod went...POP!

I usually hold the pea pod vertically with two hands so that the children can see the 'peas'.  When I say POP! loudly, I thump the underside of the 'pod' and send the peas flying!  This is a big hit everytime!  Another rhyme that I do is Pea Soup. I can't remember where I found it. 
Pea Soup
One little pea jumped into the pot,
and waited for the soup to get hot. (* I put a green pom pom pea in my hand "pot" as we count)
Two little peas...
Three little peas...
Four little peas...
Five little peas...
Finally, the soup got so very hot,
All the little peas jumped out of the pot!  (* I throw the "peas" up into the air)

I wish I had had enough time to do all the 'pea' stuff. But, we had fun with the things we did! This is really a fun theme and a great collaboration with our county Health Dept. too!