Chopsticks: Children’s Book, Breakfast Sushi, & Learning Activity

So, after reading the book we rolled up some breakfast sushi, which is simply a whole wheat tortilla with peanut butter, mini chocolate chips, and dried cranberries. Just like sushi, the combinations are endless.  Let your little pick their own fillings.  Instead of peanut butter, use cashew, almond or sunflower butter.  Or Nutella!   Yes, Nutella and strawberry breakfast sushi!  Yum!!! Roll tightly and cut like sushi. Use lunch meat and cheese and have lunch sushi.  

Our 4 YO had a blast eating off of the cute Asian inspired plate with a side of strawberry jam dipping sauce and a pair of chopsticks!  She was so excited to try out her chopstick skills that we created a little chopstick game for more practice.  You probably already have all the ingredients for this fun game: chopsticks (or two pencils), pom poms (or any other small object) and a bowl.  

We filled a bowl with medium sized pom poms and she tried to pick them up.  So simple yet so valuable!  This activity is great for dexterity, hand dominance, pre- handwriting skills/ hand writing skills and fine motor skills. Try using smaller or larger pom poms or setting a time constraint depending on the age of your child.  You could even add other pairs of chopsticks and more players, place the bowl in the middle and have them race to see who can pick up the most.  

💟Random Tidbit- I once attended a teacher workshop in which one particular activity stood out.  It has all these years later.  A large bowl of popcorn was placed in the middle of each table of 4 teachers.  We were each given a set of chopsticks and simply told all we had to do was gather as many pieces of popcorn as we could when the timer was started.  Much to our surprise, as soon as the timer started the speaker started shouting at us!  She shouted, “Hurry Up!”  “Faster! Faster!” “Why aren’t you doing it faster?” “Why don’t you have as many as so-and-so?”  ……..  It made us nervous, we lost concentration and became clumsy.  We fumbled and the challenge became more challenging. There was so much pressure to succeed that we actually failed.  Time was up!  We were completely stressed and completely frustrated. Then, the speaker told us the point of the activity;  that what we were feeling was what students feel when teachers and parents rush and pressure them to learn a new skill.  

If you haven’t read Uni the Unicorn by Amy Krouse Rosenthal, check it out immediately!!! This book is truly MAGICAL! 🌈 and 🦄 make this book the perfect gift for the “strong smart wonderful magical little girl” in your life. Now we want to slide down rainbows!!!

What are your favorite children’s books? What authors do you love?

Check out a list of our other favorite children’s books here.  
If you like this activity, click here to see some of our other book activity ideas!