Learning from One Smart Cookie
Books can be a good jumping point for learning activities. Here are some ideas for the book 'One Smart Cookie."
Reading is one of our favourite past times and recently, I decided to plan learning activities based on the stories that we have read. One of the titles is ‘One Smart Cookie’ and boy, did we have fun!
I must say that the content of this story is a tad difficult for a 3-year-old but we can always improvise. I like it that the illustration is clear and that there are values that we can learn from the story. We read the story once through before the commencement of each activity. Don’t worry, the kiddo doesn’t mind re-reading the book.
Practical Life
Faith and I had a baking session after reading this book. Since it is about cookies, I got the girl to help me bake a batch of buckwheat cookies. During the process, I introduced her to the names of the various equipment as well as the ingredients. The little girl was proud to be able to assist her mother and definitely enjoyed the cookies after they came out of the oven!
Values
One of the words in the story that I want to highlight to Faith is ‘Kindness’ and that means giving some of the cookies to her friends. I got her to pack them in a bag and give it to a family whom we were visiting the other day. The word literally came alive!
Art & imaginative play
Faith loves to play with play dough and it would be fun to get her to cut out various shapes from the cookie cutters and decorate the cookies herself. It was followed by a time of pretend play in which she ‘baked’ the cookies in her own kitchen oven and then offered the baked goods to her furry friends, the soft toys. So much conversation was taking place!
Math
Numbers and counting can be boring on paper. Why not use food to make it more interesting? After printing out pictures of cookies, I laminated them and have Faith count and put the specific number of M & Ms needed onto the cookies. There was so much energy and motivation from the little girl. Who says Maths is boring? ;)
Language arts
C is for cookie, that's good enough for me
Oh, cookie, cookie, cookie starts with C
After reading the story, I got Faith to think about words that start with C and to revise the initial sound ‘C’ with Faith. Scaffolding is needed and I thought the video on C is for Cookie helps to set the stage for this activity.
What would the next title be, I wonder?
