The Pizza Box Falnnel Board is a fun and inexpensive project to do with your children at home. If you ask, most pizza stores will give you a new box without a charge. First, read the story, The Forest Feast to your children. They will practice the story with the Pizza Box Flannel Board.

Flannel Board Materials List:
The Forest Feast storybook
Pizza Box: medium sized. Ask a local outlet for a unused pizza box.
Flannel: approximately 12″ x 24″ piece for the interior of the box in a dark color. Flannel in various colors for the cut outs.
White Glue
Craft Sticks
White Paper
Scissors
Markers

Method:
1. Cover the outside of the pizza box with pictures photocopied from The Forest Feast. You may use the PDF file in Teacher 3-day Plan: Click Here.

2. Cut 1 piece of felt to fit the inside bottom and top of the box as the background. Glue the felt in place with a thin film of white glue. Use a Popsicle stick to spread the film of glue.

3. Make cut outs. On white paper, Trace around images of Try Rannosaurs^® and Betty Baby Bites^TM in The Forest Feast to make a pattern. Make patterns for the food in the recipe for the Forest Stew: carrots, celery, turnips, tomatoes and the stew pot. Pin the pattern to various colors of flannel and cut. Draw eyes and other details on the images with a felt pen. Store the felt pieces inside the box. If you have an artistic flare, you will be able to free hand the cutouts. Since I don’t, I photocopied images on copy paper, glued them to a small piece of flannel and cut around the images. The cutouts because of the weight of the paper the images are heavier than plain flannel, but they work just fine when the box is laid flat and stay fairly well when it’s setting upright.

Definitions & Questions:

Nutrition: a food which gives our bodies the things it needs to be healthy.

Whole food: plucked or picked; something from the earth. Whole foods help you grow and stay healthy.

Junk food: fills your tummy with no nutrition.

What’s the difference between whole food and junk food? (Both fill your tummy, but only whole foods help your body grow and stay healthy.)

Why don’t Betty Baby Bites^® and Try Rannsaurus^® eat junk foods? (Junk foods are man-made. They aren’t plucked or picked from the earth.)

Why is Try Rannosaurus^® named “Try”? (Because he will try any food.)

Why is Try Rannosaurus^® always hungry? (Because he’s a growing dinosaur.)

What’s Try Rannosaurus^®‘ favorite food? (Veggies. He often says, “Green food is yummy!”)

Why do the forest animals only eat whole foods? (It’s prehistoric times, only whole foods. Whole foods give their bodies what they need to be healthy and to grow.)

Click Here for ordering information for The Forest Feast.

For info about the free Baby Bites Ezine, CLICK HERE.

Best friends, Betty Baby Bites^®, a tiny Italian mouse, and Try Rannosaurus^®, a gigantic T-Rex, eat their way through a prehistoric forest. Betty and Try’s mealtime experiences emphasize the goodness of non-processed whole foods. Vegetable-challenged children are disarmed because Try is eager to try any new food (that’s why he’s named Try).  His favorite is the green variety (after all he’s green).

Aiden likes to pretend he’s a dinosaur like Try Rannosaurus^®

After reading The Forest Feast, you can further enhance healthy eating when you engage children in additional fun whole food activities. The following seven activities are equally effective in a home or school setting. They are even more effective when integrated with reading the whole foods storybook, The Forest Feast:

1) Food on a Plate
Provide pictures of whole foods from supermarket circulars and magazine photos. Have the children glue them to a paper plate. If children are older than four, they may cut out the photos themselves using safety scissors.

2) Healthy or Junk Food?
Give the children paper plates or a piece of construction paper with a line drawn down the middle with a marker. Write healthy on one side and junky on the other side. Have pictures of junk foods like donuts, cookies, and potato chips, and pictures of whole foods. Have kids glue their photos to the appropriate side of the plate.

3) A is for Apple, B is for Banana…V is for Veggie
Provide children with pictures of whole foods and show them how to write the appropriate letter of the alphabet which corresponds to the food.

4) Guess the Food in My Picnic Basket
Prepare laminated pictures of whole foods or use a picnic basket with plastic play food. Play a guessing game with the children. Say “In my picnic basket I have some fruit. It is a red and it’s a berry. What kind of food is it?” Give the children a moment to guess, then take the item from the basket and show them a strawberry.

5) Genesis Connection
Read the creation story in Genesis. God created all things. Did He create the dinosaurs? Are dinosaurs in the Bible? In the book of Job God mentions some of the things He created. In Job 40 describes a great beast called a “Behemoth.” Read Job 40:15-24 with your child. Does this beast sound like a hippo, an elephant, or a dinosaur? Today we call the Behemoth a dinosaur, which means terrible lizard. Click Here for more information about the Behemoth.

6) Veggie Dip Snack
Prepare Julienne strips of veggies (carrots, celery, broccoli, cauliflower, etc.) with either a hummus or avocado dip. Ask the children if Try would eat this. Why? Which veggies would be his favorite? Give each child a small paper plate with each of the veggies and a dollop of dip. Discuss the textures, tastes, and how yummy each veggie smells.

7) Fruit and Vegetable Prints
You’ll Need: Paint or ink. (to make tempera paint thicker and stickier add a touch of flour or glue). Sponges and an old cookie tray or Styrofoam tray. It’s a good idea to put the paint on a sponge so that when an object is dipped into the paint, the sponge will only let off a little bit of paint…because a little is all you need.
You will need: Paintbrushes, water and water containers. Paper and a covered work area. Fruits and veggies of all kinds: carrots, starfruit, mushrooms, cauliflower, broccoli, peppers, avocados, and apples.

Method:
1. Dip fruit and vegetables into paint or printing ink and stamp them onto paper in random or ordered patterns.
2. Kinder artists may instead apply the paint or ink directly to the vegetables with a paintbrush.
3. No knives are needed except for to cut the fruit or vegetable in half (an adult should do this part).

For more fun food ideas, go to “Browse Baby Bites Categories” located on the right. Then click on “The Forest Feast Teaching Helps.”

CLICK HERE for ordering information for Baby Bites: Transforming a Picky Eater into a Healthy Eater and The Forest Feast: Baby Bites Mealtime Adventures.

For info about the free Baby Bites Ezine, CLICK HERE.

Preparation:
1) Photocopy Try Rannosaurus^®. Use a PDF image by clicking on the image to the left. Print in landscape mode. You will get an 8″ X 11″ image. Back Try’s image with cardboard or card stock. Cut a hole in Try’s mouth. Tape a one gallon plastic bag to the back of Try’s head so it opens to the mouth. This baggie will hold the food pictures prepared by the children.

An alternative method is to use a 9″ X 9″ box instead of cardboard. Glue Try’s image to the lid and cut the hole through his mouth and the box lid. The lid is easily removed to retrieve the food pictures and it’s useful for storing them. A box will also provide added stability.

2) Cut pictures of whole foods from magazines and newspapers.

Click on the picture for a PDF File of Try Rannosaurus^®.
This file is 22 MB, if you have an older computer it may not load.
You may also photocopy an image of Try from The Forest Feast and enlarge.

Day 1: Read the story “The Forest Feast.”
1) The forest animals eat foods like you and I. What are whole foods? How can we make sure we eat foods which will help our bodies grow and keep us healthy?  (food pyramid)
2) Using the food pyramid, review with children the different food groups and the number of servings which are recommended for one day.
3) Divide the children five groups. Assign each group a different food group from the pyramid.
4) Each group will locate whole foods from a magazine newspaper, or Internet, appropriate from their food group.
5) Place the appropriate pictures together on a paper plate with the heading breakfast.
Children will discuss items found. Answering questions such as: Is that a good choice for breakfast? Is this a whole food? Discuss with the children which drinks are healthy. Would Try or Betty eat this food? Why or why not?
6) Have the children mark off servings used from their food group as they use them. The children will locate foods for lunch on the second day and dinner on the third. The foods will be placed on plates like the breakfast meal.
7) Children will take turns feeding Try. Children will tell what the food is and where it belongs on the food pyramid as they feed him.

Day 2: Repeat with Lunch Items.
Day 3: Repeat with Dinner Items.

Definitions & Questions:

Nutrition: a food which gives our bodies the things it needs to be healthy.

Whole food: plucked or picked; something from the earth. Whole foods help you grow and stay healthy.

Junk food: fills your tummy with no nutrition.

What’s the difference between whole food and junk food? (Both fill your tummy, but only whole foods help your body grow and stay healthy.)

Why don’t Betty Baby Bites^TM and Try Rannsaurus^® eat junk foods? (Junk foods are man-made. They aren’t plucked or picked from the earth.)

Why is Try Rannosaurus^® named “Try”? (Because he will try any food.)

Why is Try Rannosaurus^® always hungry? (Because he’s a growing dinosaur.)

What’s Try Rannosaurus^®‘ favorite food? (Veggies. He often says, “Green food is yummy!”)

Why do the forest animals only eat whole foods? (It’s prehistoric times, only whole foods. Whole foods give their bodies what they need to be healthy and to grow.)

My new storybook, The Forest Feast is here! I’m extending the FREE shipping and handling. When the parenting book, Baby Bites: Transforming a Picky Eater into a Healthy Eater, is purchased with The Forest Feast, you’ll save even more! Click Here for ordering information.

For info about the free Baby Bites Ezine, CLICK HERE.

Read Aloud

Show the children the front cover of the book. Make sure to hold the book in front you in such a way that the children can easily see the pictures. It’s helpful to hold the book up and a bit to the side.

Tell them in just a moment you are going to read them a story called The Forest Feast. Show them the cover with a picture of Try and Betty. Ask what kind of animals are they?

Ask the children, “Do you know what dinosaurs like to eat?” Let some of the kids answer, then say “That’s right! Dinosaurs like to eat all kinds of things… even some things that people can’t eat.”

Point to the pictures of the food items as they appear in the story. Ask the children, “What is this?” Let them call out the answers. Read the story aloud, pausing after you read the words on each page to make sure the children can see the pictures. At the end of the story, ask the children what they ate for breakfast today. The ask, “Would Try or Betty eat this food?” (Try and Betty only eat whole foods.)

Definitions & Questions for Kids

Nutrition: a food which gives our bodies the things it needs to be healthy.

Whole food: plucked or picked; something from the earth. Whole foods help you grow and stay healthy.

Junk food: fills your tummy with no nutrition.

What’s the difference between whole food and junk food? (Both fill your tummy, but only whole foods help your body grow and stay healthy.)

Why don’t Betty Baby Bites^TM and Try Rannsaurus^® eat junk foods? (Junk foods are man-made. They aren’t plucked or picked from the earth.)

Why is Try Rannosaurus^® named “Try”? (Because he will try any food.)

Why is Try Rannosaurus^® always hungry? (Because he’s a growing dinosaur.)

What’s Try Rannosaurus^®‘ favorite food? (Veggies. He often says, “Green food is yummy!”)

Why do the forest animals only eat whole foods? (It’s prehistoric times, only whole foods. Whole foods give their bodies what they need to be healthy and to grow.)

My new storybook, The Forest Feast is here! I’m extending the FREE shipping and handling. When the parenting book, Baby Bites: Transforming a Picky Eater into a Healthy Eater, is purchased with The Forest Feast, you’ll save even more! Click Here for ordering information.

For info about the free Baby Bites Ezine, CLICK HERE.

Are you a preschool teacher?

Early elementary school teacher?

Do you home-school?

Are you a children’s librarian?

You’ll want to check back for Healthy Bites Lesson Plans and Activities for The Forest Feast storybook.

COMING SOON:

1. Read Aloud Story Helps and Questions

2. Teacher 3-day Plan (Focusing on the Food Pyramid

3. Food on a Plate

4. Healthy Food or Junk Food?

5. A is for Apple…V is for Veggie

6. Guess the Food in My Picnic Basket

7. The Creation of Whole Foods (for Religious Schools)

8. Fruit and Veggie Prints

9. Pizza Box Flannel Board for The Forest Feast

CLICK Here for “Fun with Whole Foods.

Looking for a speaker for your teachers’ conference? CLICK HERE

Keep informed sign up for the FREE weekly Baby Bites Ezine: CLICK HERE

If you’re old enough, you’ll remember watching Saturday morning cartoons with Popeye and Olive Oil. When Popeye needed super strength, he’d open a can of spinach with his bare hands and gulp down the contents. For sure, canned spinach is the least nutritious way to eat spinach, but at least he consumed a veggie.

Today, kids’ books, TV programs, and movies almost always emphasize junk foods. Not only do they highlight these foods, but frequently joke about people (usually adults) who eat organic foods or whole foods.

Try & Betty heading for breakfast

The movie, Bedtime Stories with Adam Sandler, is a perfect example. This is an enchanting tale about an uncle, who tells inventive bedtime stories to his niece and nephew. His sister, the kids’ mom, is a health nut and her over the top instance on eating flavorless organic food is the butt of his jokes.

Cookbooks for children usually focus on sweets for kids to make. They’re full of recipes for cookies, cakes, and other treats. Even with healthy food, processed items are often on the ingredient list, as well as sugar.

The few storybooks for children, which approach the theme of healthy eating, end up centering on the negative. Picky eating is depicted as funny, albeit a problem to overcome. What’s worse, junk foods end up in competition with whole foods. Of course, kids already know that junk foods taste good.

In my new storybook, The Forest Feast: Baby Bites Mealtime Adventures, best friends Try Rannosaurus^®, and Betty Baby Bites^® LOVE whole foods, especially veggies! Picky eating and junk foods are never mentioned, because the story is set in prehistoric times. There’s only food—whole food. The characters naturally eat what is good and wholesome: modeling healthy habits for children.

Try is a growing dinosaur with a massive appetite. He’s eager to try any new food (that’s why he’s named Try) and his favorite is the green variety, after all he’s green. Try says, “Green food is yummy!” In The Forest Feast, he’s searching for a special veggie to bring to the weekly supper. At day’s end, everyone is surprised by Try’s contribution.

Betty Baby Bites is the brains behind the dinosaur. She’s a foodie, loving the culinary arts. Betty is an Italian mouse and can be found supervising meals, while offering encouragement. She loves to interject her favorite words of support, fantastico and bravo.

The Forest Feast applies the reading and visual input aspects of multi-sensory learning to healthy eating, explained in my parenting book, Baby Bites: Transforming a Picky Eater into a Healthy Eater. The various foods Try and Betty consume during their escapades encourage children, especially picky eaters, to appreciate veggies. After reading The Forest Feast to your children, you’re kids are sure to agree with Try, “Green food is yummy!”

Read more about The Forest Feast, CLICK HERE.

For ordering information, CLICK Here and receive FREE shipping on The Forest Feast.

You’ll need:
A band of white poster board 26 inches long and 3 inches high
3 sheets of white tissue paper
Scotch tape
clear packing tape

Method:
1) Cut the tissue paper to three 10 inches by 26 inches pieces.

2) Pleat and tape one of the short sides of each tissue strip along the hat band. Continue until pleated tissue paper runs the length of the hat band. I used a 3″ X 3″ piece of poster board to help pleat the paper and taped every 5 or 6 inches with Scotch tape. When you have pleated all the tissue paper, place a strip of clear packing tape over the ends to firmly secure to the poster board band.

3) Gather the tissue at the top, taping it tightly together.

Brandon & Nicole are ready to start cooking!

4) Curl the band tape side in, place it around a child’s head, and paper clip.

5)  Remove the hat. Staple or tape the ends of the hat, remove the paper clip, and puff up the tissue.

For info about the free Baby Bites Ezine, Click Here.

For a synopsis of Baby Bites: Transforming a Picky Eater into a Healthy Eater, Click Here.