Reading sessions are born out of Lesley's idea and we realised that we have to make it engaging and fun for the kids so that they can develop a love for learning. We are also very lucky to have Anne, who works in the National Library Board, volunteering with us. For the past few months, she went around the different libraries and borrowed books that are in line with our monthly themes. This month, we managed to get five copies of the book "Can I have a snack?" by Helena Markham.
And of course, such a book must be accompanied by snacks! There was a spread of almond butter, raisins, sweet potato chips, grapes, quail eggs, hummus, beetroot, celery, carrots and cucumber sticks prepared lovingly by Anne, Lesley and Dean. As we turn the pages, we had food tasting sessions relevant to the various content of the book and gave explanations where corrections to the information are needed. Some kids were initially hesitant to taste the food as they did not think that it would be good. However, when the other kids started to experiment, they began taking small bites too. It was an achievement for us when the kids started asking for more cucumber, celery and carrot sticks!

After the reading session, the kids formed teams and worked together. Dean had prepared a word search for the kids to help them better navigate the confusing food industry by educating them on the more than 60 different alternative names of sugar. Most do not even know that these ingredients are considered sugar. You can download the wordsearch here.
It was getting dark when we proceed with our next activity. The kids spread themselves out comfortably in a row and we started to distribute a box of sugar cubes to each kid. As they unbox the sugar cubes, they felt a sense of fascination because the sugar cubes 'glowed' in the dark and they have never played with sugar before. The kids happily worked on their next task which is to create their own structures using the sugar cubes.
Towards the end of the session, the kids are allowed to destroy their own sugar cubes. Through this fun exercise, we hope to embed into their minds that sugar is unhealthy and should not be considered food. They had such a joyful time crushing the cubes and truly enjoyed the freedom to explore their creativity and textures using an unconventional medium. A word of warning though, cleaning up the mess may be stressful after the event :)
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