Went to the library to pick up the books I reserved about lunch and lunchboxes. Fifteen books, and half of them are about bad manners, and far worse nutrition. I ended up with six that I will share with students. Three of the books are about grandparents. Maybe there is a way to connect our nutrition unit with our grandparent project:
Oliver's Fruit Salad, by Vivian French, is about a boy who has been helping his grandfather in an orchard. He likes to help, but he doesn't like to eat fruit. It involves going to the grocery store with his mom to buy fresh fruit instead of processed. Then the grandparents arrive, and they prepare a grand fruit salad, and the boy eats three helpings.
Grandpa's Garden Lunch, by Judith Caseley, goes through the process of planting and tending a garden (vegetables, flowers, and herbs) shared by a little girl and her grandparents. Then one day they "have the garden for lunch", salad, spaghetti sauce, mint iced tea, zucchini cake, and flowers on the table.
Lunchtime for a Purple Snake, by Harriet Ziefert, is about a girl and her artist grandfather. They take turns painting parts of a picture, and talk about color-mixing. Their collaboration is about a snake's lunch.
It will be fun to use our current supply of ugly neckties to make "purple lunchtime snakes"... I'm getting excited about the oral history dictation:
At Grandma's house I don't kick my brother under the table.
When Granddad takes us out to dinner we "have reservations". We order from the menu, but he says our eyes shouldn't be "bigger than our stomachs". Granddad also says the pelican's beak holds more than its belly can.
My grandma says it's bad manners to burp. Mom says that "under no uncertain circumstances" are we to burp at Grandma's house. She said that at Grandma's house it is "better to squelch a belch and bear the pain than to belch a belch and bear the shame."
My grandpa eats pickled herring and teeny tiny ears of corn from a jar for lunch. It's very scary.
Grandmother pours my breakfast cereal in the special chickie bowl that my dad used when he was just my age. If I eat it all, I can see the chickie. She pours my orange juice in the bluebird glass. After breakfast I use the red watering can to water her African violets. Grandmother's kitchen floor squeaks.
When Grandma and I go to the zoo, we take a picnic lunch to eat at the sea lion pool. We have iced tea with our sandwiches and carrots so yellowjackets don't bother us. I got a bee sting when we had ice cream cones... Grandma and I talk about the elephants when my brother has a bad diaper, then we ride the train.
Gramps says "take all you want, but eat all you take."
When we drive away from Grandma's house, Dad says, "throw momma from the train a kiss goodbye."
My grandma is the best cook in the whole wide world.
If my grandparents came to my school for lunch, I would show them _______________________ and ____________________________.
My grandpa likes to take a nap after lunch. So do I!
© 2007 Nancy L. Ruder
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