Diversity in Food
Our circle time started off with rhyme time. We took out a few of our friends’ rhyme drawings that we used for our Halloween song. It was amazing how well we remembered the words that rhyme with our names. For D, we said, “Did you ever see D pretending to be a car navi? Down by the bay!”. Ch seemed to forget what a car navi was, so he asked, “What is car-navi?”. Be immediately raised her hand and replied, “You move it where you want to go. It’s from the earth lamp”. Then, Ky shared that “It’s like say ryokinjou ni hairimasu. Like Daddy give the money to the ryokinjou”. Brilliant sharing time about car navi, which is a short term for car navigator. It is a machine that helps drivers to go to where they plan to go. As Ky said, it does not only give us directions, but also tells us when we are about to pass through a toll gate.
We continued with the next drawing and Au excitedly said, “That’s Shelley eating jelly!”. Vieda put some toys on the floor as we named each of them. We had a bit of thinking time to identify which items rhyme with each other. Ky picked apple and pineapple, Ch had ice and dice and K had human and fireman. We just love rhymes!
Everyone likes talking about food. After singing a song about foods that we like, Vieda asked us what our most favorite fruit is. K always asks this question to Vieda at lunch time. So, when we asked Vieda what her favorite fruit is, K smiled and said, “Mango! I like mangoes, too!”. Here’s our friends’ favorite fruits:
Ky: Pineapple and mango. I have mango for snack today.
Au: Maybe milk.
Ch: Mango, coconut and muscat.
Be: Mango!
Nimo: I will make a face that I get when I eat my favorite fruit. What is it?
K: Lemons!
Shelley: Mine starts with mmmm.
Ch: Is it mango?
Au: Pin pon! Mango pin pon!
Ra: (pointed at the fruits) (thumbs up)
QUESTION OF THE DAY: Did you eat bread for breakfast?
Thank you to Augustas for reading today’s question. Our friends shared what they had for breakfast.
Be: Soup.
Ky: I forgot…I did not eat.
K: I eat, but I forgot. Nimo had sandwich. How about Vieda?
Vieda: Do you remember where am I from?
K: The Philippines! What is Philippine breakfast?
Vieda gave us some clues about what Filipino breakfast she had. We turned on our listening ears and tried to guess what it was.
Vieda: It is white.
Ch: Mochi?
Ky: Thinking time!
Vieda: I see that some of you bring this for lunch.
Ch: Rice! When I go to the hospital, I always eat rice. When I go to Ohana, I eat bread or cereal.
Yes, Vieda’s Flipino breakfast had rice and…. She showed us a picture of what it looked like. It had egg (itlog), fried rice (sinangag) and sauteed beef (tapa). She said that it is called, TAPSILOG which is a condensed combination of all the three food items. Nimo also shared what he would usually have in the US for breakfast. We looked at the typical American breakfast picture (pancakes, hash browns, bacon, and eggs) and noted some differences and similarity with the Filipino breakfast.
Ch: There’s no pancake, potatoes but have the same eggs. Oh no bacon, too! I wonder what Hongkong breakfast looks like. I don’t know what Hongkong breakfast has.
Vieda remembered what she had for breakfast when she was in Hongkong so, we quickly looked for a picture. We found one CHAAN DAN TUNG or macaroni soup. When Ky saw it, he said, “This look like guratan (“gratin”).
Talking about breakfast and favorite fruits shows how different we could be with our food preferences as well. People from different countries have different food preferences. As we continue to talk about our differences in skin color, eye color, and now food preferences, we realized that all of these came from a big word that we learned that rhymes with gravity --- DIVERSITY! What does diversity tell us about our food preferences?
Ky: If friend’s food good smell, you say good smell! It it’s yucky, don’t say anything (pretended to zip his mouth).
Ch: Just eat your lunch and don’t say anything.
A perfect timing to read Yoko by Rosemary Wells for our story time. Yoko is a story about a girl who brought sushi rolls to school for lunch and unfortunately got laughed at by her classmates. Her teacher had an idea and celebrated international food day where each child brought food from their own country. At the end of the celebration, while other foods were gone, Yoko’s sushi rolls remained untouched. Then, a classmate was still hungry and tried one sushi roll who turned out to really like it! When we finished the story, Vieda asked us how we felt about the story.
Ch: Yoko is sad because no one try it.
Be: Sad… I don’t know.
Ky: No try.
K: That’s not how you use chopsticks.
Ky: Not good using your chopsticks. My Mommy say your chopsticks no use food like other people. We don’t say yucky!
Ch: We are talking about if we have different lunch, breakfast, or dinner. And if you don’t like it, you can just go like sideways, but don’t say anything.
Ky: Don’t say yucky!
Ch: Change your side.
Diversity does come with respect for others. When someone comes with snack or lunch which we may not be used to, we show respect by not saying “Yucky!” or “That’s disgusting!”. We show respect by not covering our nose. We show respect by not giving an upset face. We think of how our friends’ feelings if the same thing happens to us. We love our friends and we do not want them to feel sad or upset. Showing respect to our friends is one of the ways we celebrate diversity!
On the other hand, K remembered that “gravity makes stuff down”. We wonder what happens when people eat in space. K confidently said, “You will float in space. Your food, too!”. Ch added, “You will eat dry food!”. Let’s talk more about this tomorrow! We would love to hear your ideas😊
Diversity – Gravity
These words rhyme
Diversity – Gravity
These words rhyme
Rhyme along with me!
What an interesting way to learn about diversity and gravity and rhymes all together!
Love,
Flowers XOXO