Shell out!

Today is World Book Day 2002. Among the suggested 'super reads' for the day is Eat Your Peas by Kes Gray and Nick Sharrat (Red Fox, 4.99), a wonderfully funny story and an ideal topic round which to develop some activities for children across the Foundation Stage.

Eat Your Peas is a story about Daisy, who will not eat her peas because she really does not like them. Her mum offers her many bribes, but Daisy is not tempted to change her mind.

The story unfolds through dialogue between the mother and daughter, and illustrations show the mother growing more annoyed while her daughter becomes more defiant. In the end, the child turns the tables on the adult. She agrees to eat her peas as long as her mother eats her Brussels sprouts.

Eventually, the conflict is resolved by them both skipping the vegetables that neither enjoy eating. However, they both like ice cream and eat that instead.

Conflicts about food and eating are very common between parents and children, so this story may be used positively to help children see the humorous side of the argument. Read it to children in your Foundation Stage setting and adapt the story to inspire activities to match their skills and experience. Always ensure, however, that adults promote peas and other vegetables that are crucial for a balanced and nutritious diet.

Home and dry

Dried peas can be used in a variety of ways to help children develop fine motor skills. Always supervise the youngest children carefully when they are playing with them. A jug full of peas is less messy than water, but acts just like a liquid.

Pouring peas

* Place two jugs and a couple of cups on a small tray.

* Fill one jug with dried peas.

* Place the tray on a shelf where it is accessible to the children and suggest they take it to a table when they want to practise pouring skills.

* The idea is that they pour the peas from one jug to another and into the cups as they please.

The more they practise these movements, the more confident they become. Pouring develops concentration skills, as well as good hand-eye co-ordination. This activity will also give children the confidence to pour their drinks at break time or in their own homes.

Transferring peas

In a similar fashion to pouring, children's concentration and fine motor skills can be promoted by having them transfer peas from one dish to another, using a spoon.

* Provide two or three small dishes and two spoons. Use traditional Chinese dishes and small soup spoons made of plastic for safety.

* Encourage children to transfer the peas by ladling them carefully in a spoon from one dish, holding the spoon level as they move it over to the next dish, and then tipping it out.

* Prompt the children sensitively to compare the contents of the dishes.

* Introduce new words such as full, empty, half-full, half-empty, level, steady, gently and pour.

* Ask them to describe someone ladling out food in this manner.

* Engage them in conversation so that the task is used to stimulate their imagination as well. They could pretend they were ladling out soup for their friends or food for their hungry toys.

The more children think positively about the activity, the more they will wish to return to it to perfect their skills. Give them lots of encouragement and praise so that they will be happy to show off their new dexterity.

Repeat after me

Try these activities to further develop children's fine motor skills and their knowledge and understanding of the world.

Shelling peas

This activity provides good practice for developing fine motor skills and can have a therapeutic and calming effect on children.

* Organise a small group of children around a table or in a circle, sitting on the floor, and give them each a small dish.

* Set a large colander in the centre of the circle and an empty bowl for the used pods.

* Demonstrate how to pop the pea pods and to press out the peas into their dishes.

* Allow them to find their own ways to shell the peas after that.

* Talk to them as you all work together. Use the opportunity to chat, to sing or to tell stories.

* You will find that children can learn to concentrate well when their fingers are occupied, doing a repetitive and simple task.

* When all the peas are shelled, cook them in boiling water until tender.

* Ask the children to share the cooked peas with the rest of the group at circle time.

* Suggest that they tell their friendswhat they did to release the peas from the pods.

Planting peas

Did you know that you can soak dried peas, plant them in soil and watch them grow? Growing your own pea plants will teach children about the conditions that the plants need to develop successfully, and they can learn to share the responsibility of watering and caring for them. Looked after well, the plants will eventually produce flowers and peas. All this can be achieved indoors, with due care and attention. Children can observe the life cycle of the pea and enjoy the fruits of their labour.

All sorts

Organise activities that will help to boost the children's mathematical understanding and creative development.

Comparing pods

There are many vegetables belonging to the pod family. Introduce children to a range of these vegetables to expand their knowledge and understanding of plant life.

* These are the varieties of pods you could collect, including runner beans, green beans, fine beans, sugar snaps, mange tout, broad beans and peas. Most vegetables are available in supermarkets these days.

* Present the vegetables mixed together on a tray before the children.

* Ask the children to sort them into groups. To do this they will need to compare the shape, length, colour and size of the pods.

* Support the children by using the correct vocabulary to describe these distinguishing characteristics.

* Ask them to count the varieties of pods they have identified and label the groups that they have sorted by introducing their correct titles. Mention that 'mange tout' is a French term which means that all of the vegetable can be eaten.

* Encourage the children to explore the pods by opening one of each of the varieties.

* Compare the sizes and shapes of the peas contained in the pods.

* Explain that some of the pods are traditionally eaten whole, while others are discarded for the peas they contain.

* Prepare all the beans and peas by washing and shelling them, where necessary.

* Cook most of the prepared vegetables for the children to taste.

* Compare the colour and texture of the cooked beans and peas with the raw ones.

* Explain to the children that the cooking process has softened the vegetables so that they are good to eat.

Paint your beans

Celebrate the children's investigation of pods by offering them the opportunity to record the sorting and eating experience.

* Provide green paint in a range of tints to represent the colours they have seen in the beans and peas. Ensure the paint is thick enough so that the children can use their fingers to paint with.

* Ensure that you use strong paper that does not tear as the children press their fingers on its surface.

* Encourage the children to look at the beans and peas to remember the different shapes, sizes and colours.

* Using their fingers will enable them to paint long marks across the paper to depict the long beans, while fingertip prints will represent the peas.

* Encourage children to use the correct names for the vegetables they show in their paintings and to talk about the ones they enjoyed tasting.

Vegetable patch

Take a closer look at different kinds of vegetables and follow this up with some vegetable collage as a way of developing children's knowledge and understanding of the world and creative development.

Taking a closer look

A strong theme of the story Eat Your Peas is Daisy's determination not to eat what she does not like. Most children enjoy talking about food and what they like to eat at home. Use this story as an opportunity for them to voice their opinions about food.

In the story lots of emphasis is given to sweet and sickly food such as ice cream and chocolate, as if children don't enjoy anything else. Redress this imbalance by concentrating on researching green vegetables, some of which appear in the book.

There are so many green vegetables to examine. Narrow the exploration by focusing on those that have leaves and can be unwrapped.

Some examples to present for inspection are:

* Brussels sprouts, green cabbage, Chinese cabbage, Savoy cabbage, and an assortment of lettuces, including cos, iceberg, density and traditional round lettuce.

* Examine all the green leafed vegetables raw.

* Provide children with cutting boards and safe knives for preparing them.

* Compare the size of the vegetables.

* Prompt the children to use the correct names to identify the vegetables so that they become more able to distinguish between them.

* Encourage the children to fold back and break off the leaves when they examine each different type of vegetable.

* Talk about the nature of the leaves and compare the colour, the surfaces and the thickness of each one.

* Encourage the children to test out each other's knowledge by mixing up the leaves on a plate and asking their friends to identify which vegetable they belong to.

* Research how these particular vegetables grow by referring the children to gardening books.

* When they have made a thorough examination of them, encourage the children to taste the lettuces and cook the cabbages lightly so that they can sample them as well.

* Ask them to explain which they prefer and why.

Vegetable collage

This practical investigation of green-leafed vegetables should be followed by an activity in which children can express themselves creatively.

* Provide a good assortment of different types of paper, taking care to represent the range of green, white and yellow colours observed previously in the vegetables.

* Papers could include: sugar paper, tissue paper, crepe paper, cellophane, baking sheets, blotting paper.

* Ensure that there are sufficient pairs of scissors, glue sticks and PVA glue.

* Either the children can produce individual collage pieces or they can be encouraged to work alongside each other on a long piece of wallpaper. At this stage of development, their fine motor skills will generally be sufficiently mature to enable them to produce some very interesting and creative collages, inspired by the real examples of vegetables before them and the previous discussion.

* Ask the children to write their own labels to identify the vegetables they have created using paper.

* Display the work effectively on a wall behind a table display of the real vegetables that were originally examined.

* For more information, see www.worldbookday.com.