I wanted to share a list of ways I have thought to use these sticker books. At $4.99 a book, you really can't beat the limitless ways these can be used by children of MANY ages! Today I will choose and cover just one of our family favorites! Come back to visit to see additions to this list soon!
Melissa & Doug Make-a-Meal Sticker Book
Melissa & Doug Make-a-Meal Sticker Book
- CREATING A BALANCED MEAL - Go over the food groups with your child and have them make a balanced meal focusing on proteins, vegetables, grains, sweets, etc.
- WRITING WORD BANK - After your child creates a meal, label the parts of the meal (as shown in the picture below. Using this as a word bank, help or challenge your child to create a piece of writing using many of the words that are labeled. Maybe they create a fictional story, a how-to piece, or even a recipe to go along with the picture they created. Again, parents of younger kids can help them brainstorm and write a few sentences for them to read and reread. Teachers can easily have many of these placed in a writing center for students to use! You can write a sentence a day for a week until you have a paragraph about the picture. So many options! In the picture below, the yellow sentence strip might be something a younger child would do and the blue would be a child capable of writing their own sentence. Older kids can write full stories or pieces.
Writing Word Bank
- DESCRIPTION WEBBING - Taking even just one component of the picture, kids can create a web to further describe what is on the placemat. This can be added to a writer's folder or used as an activity to help them brainstorm or work on bettering their skills as writers.
- PERSONAL PLACEMATS - Let each child decorate their own placemat picture. Once they are finished, laminate the picture and actually use it as their own placemat at the table!
- TEST REVIEW OR GAME - Come up with what kids will need to earn during the game like...1 entree, 3 sides, 1 drink, and 1 dessert for example. As they answer questions correctly, have them pick one of the items needed and add it to their placemats. Continue play until the first person collects all the items they need. There are so many fun ways to adapt this! Be creative! :)
- SPECIAL CHORES CHART - Pre-select food stickers and write down chores on them. Your children can choose a food (chore) to finish and then add it to their placemat. Once they have filled up their plates/trays with stickers, they can earn a prize, allowance, etc. You can choose ahead of time how many food items need to be added to their placemats in order to earn the reward.
- PLAYING RESTAURANT - Better if done with multiple people or multiple placemats, fill up a few sticker mats with different foods. Have or help your child create and design a restaurant menu listing these items and the price of each. You can play restaurant and choose placemats to use and allow your child(ren) to "add up" what your bill will be. There are many directions you can take this once you feel your children are ready! Added bonus - hang onto the placemats and reuse the next time you want to play restaurant! :)
- HOW MANY CALORIES - Create a meal and then using the internet and other resources, try to determine the total weight of the meal in calories. This can start a conversation about recommended calories in a day for certain groups, what calories are, why they are important, how to get the biggest bang for your buck in caloric consumption, etc.
