Cooking School: A Toddler's Tale

Anderson & I love going to the library. There are so many wonderful books for me to comb through and he enjoys the ipads, puppets & puzzles. We went on Sunday afternoon but this time Andrew went with us! It was great because he and Anderman played together while I literally sat on the floor for an hour going through books.

I discovered some new, fun authors one of whom is Anne Rockwell. I had never heard of her but maybe you have. She's been around for a while & has written so many books!

We borrowed Apples and Pumpkins in honor of the first day of fall & Pots and Pans.

We have both enjoyed them so much that I've added them to Anderson's Amazon Wish List so that I can remember them when I'm purchasing his Christmas & birthday gifts this year. Our library has several of Rockwell's books and I can't wait to borrow more!

This morning we read a whole stack of different books, including Rockwell's and then we went to the kitchen, which I think is Anderson's favorite room. He can usually see the cats through the window, it's the "food room" and we just naturally spend a lot of time in there. He has another book that talks about the different rooms in a house & the kitchen is always his favorite one to look at.

Rockwell's Pots and Pans is a simple but beautiful picture book. It has short sentences and goes through the different items found in a kitchen. Items like a rolling pin, measuring spoons and even a wok! 

I pulled out as many of the items mentioned that we have {we don't have a butter warmer or a wok!} & let him see them & pointed to them as I re-read him the book. 

It was fun to watch him make the connections & say "Oooh!" over & over again. His favorite items were the wire whisk & the rolling pin. He took a turn "mixing" with the wire whisk in each of the different pots.

This was such an easy activity to do and my favorite part is that it is centered around a book. This makes me so excited to start Before Five in a Row with him before too long! 

Another fun activity to do would be to lay out all of the items & ask him  to show me "the wire whisk" while I point to it in the book! We might just do that when he wakes up from nap!


What are some of your favorite book-centered activities to do with pre-schoolers?