4 Fun Ways to Teach Pre-K Students About Their Classmates’ Lunches

As a pre-K teacher, I’ve learned that my kiddos don’t always know what their classmates are eating or how to talk to their friends about it in a polite way.

When I started teaching in my district, I was so excited to meet 4-year-old students who spoke everything from Portuguese to Telugu to Japanese and came in with beautiful and complex homemade meals. After a few days of school, the kids began inquiring about each other’s plates. “What does that taste like?” and “That looks weird—did your mom make it?” were common refrains. My team and I decided the best way to build classroom community was to bring students’ home cultures into the discussion.

Below are four lesson plans I’ve incorporated that I’d recommend to other teachers.

1. Read About Slop

We read the Mo Willems classic I Really Like Slop! at the beginning of the year to open up a conversation about how we all like to eat different things.

“You eat THAT?” Gerald the elephant asks in the book.

“Sure, I eat this,” Piggie responds. “Eating slop is part of pig culture.”

This silly book is a great opportunity to address how we all have special foods that we love, and even if you don’t eat what your friend eats, that’s OK. We can ask them what their food is called, and they can ask us, too. 

Although I remind students that they can’t share food at our school, I make sure to get across the sweet messaging at the end of the book. After Piggie asks Gerald if he likes the slop he just tried, Gerald answers honestly, “I do not really like slop. But, I am glad I tried it. Because I really like you.”

Building off the book’s lessons, I’ve found it useful to model language like “I’ve never had that before, but maybe I can learn to cook it.” And, “Who made your lunch for you today? Wow, they must be very talented!”

2. Spice Up Your Dramatic Play Center

When I was a kid, one of my favorite rainy-day activities was to pull out my mom’s cookbooks and read through the dessert sections. I’ve since passed along that tradition to my students. I like to hit up my local used book store for cookbooks, which are great in part because they aren’t budget-breakers. They also supply real photographs and prereading skills. If your budget allows, consider opting for some toy food bundles that include a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, grains, and proteins.

Imagination is your best friend when it comes to cookbooks and toy foods. “What is this?” I was asked about a flat, circular food item in a cookbook. “Well, to me it looks like a tortilla,” I responded. “But it can also be chapati. What would you like it to be while we cook today?”

I truly can’t describe the joy on my kiddos’ faces when they flip through a cookbook and find something they eat at home.

3. When In Doubt, Puppet Out

Kids are very literal—acting out scenarios with stuffies or puppets helps students see how they can redo a situation and make sure everyone leaves feeling better. I start by reenacting a conflict and asking what went wrong. Then the kiddos offer feedback on what to say and how to do things differently.

One example scenario: “Today I heard someone tell their friend that their food looks weird. It made me sad to hear those words, because I know we love our friends here, and the food we bring is special to us. Let’s use Kat and Hero to figure out how we can redo this.”

The students jump in with their own solutions and scripts (a form of accountability!) and generate ways to learn about each other while not hurting feelings. Afterward, for further practice, I pair students up and have them act out the solution-based scenario again.

4. Build A Class Recipe Book

To build a class recipe book, you can follow these steps.

Pitch the book to your students. Try something like this: “I’ve had so much fun learning about you, and every day when you sit down for lunch, I wonder how your grown-ups cook your food. I was wondering if we should make a recipe book of all our favorite foods, so we can learn to make them at home?” 

When I’ve phrased it that way, I’ve gotten a resounding “Yes!” from my students.

Send a parent letter and assign homework. Write up a parent letter and send home a blank recipe page. Ask parents to email a picture of the food dish and their child in the kitchen.

Assemble. Assemble the scanned recipes and photos on Google Slides. You can premake a cover page or have the kids color one. Be sure to laminate the first page, then bind the books in a book binder.

Spread the love. Pass out the books and enjoy your students’ elated faces as they explore all the photos and recipes. My teaching partner and I like to add our own recipes, too. 

At the end of the day, classroom culture boils down to love. When we can admire and appreciate what our kids bring to the table, literally and figuratively, we can spread that love to their little hearts. They will never forget these little moments with us.