Home Learning - Fruits and Vegetables/Planting Theme [Books to read]

For our home learning activities, I tend to like to relate them to what Kaitlin learns in school so that it serves as a reinforcement. I usually base the books we borrow and our activities on the theme they are teaching for the term. 

We've been reading books to Kaitlin for the longest time and though she wasn't interested at first, now she loves to read! Sometime's she'll take the books herself and ask us to read it to her or she'll open and look at them herself. When I fetch her from school, I can even sometimes find her just sitting down at the table with a book waiting for me to pick her up. I make use of the opportunity that she loves to read to teach her new words and themes.

This term, her school is teaching about fruits and vegetables. So here are some of my favourite books for teaching this theme that you can buy/borrow from the library:

I love the books written by Lois Ehlert! They are big which are great for telling stories to preschoolers and they are colourful! What better way to get your kid's attention especially if you are just starting them out on reading.

Growing Vegetable Soup goes through the process of growing vegetables then gathering them and cutting the vegetables up to prepare for cooking the vegetable soup. It's great for teaching beyond vegetables alone which she labels in the book. They learn words like 'seeds', 'grow', 'cut' and so on. There's even a vegetable soup recipe included at the end. I find it a great way to get fussy kid eaters interested in eating their veggies.

This is another great book by Lois Ehlert with great illustrations. It's not exactly about fruit and vegetables, but I borrowed it anyway as it does talk about planting, which I felt is a topic that we could explore and expand from the fruit and veg theme. The story is about the plant cycle from seeds to flowers. Lots of new words can be learnt from this book. It introduces a great variety of flowers, and at the same time teaches the different colours of the rainbow.

The Little Gardener by Jan Gerardi is about planting and gardening. Again, it's not a fruit and vegetable theme book, but it does teach useful keywords involved in planting, and what is needed for plants to grow. The book puts the concepts across in a very easy to understand manner and is quite a fun read with its rhyming text. I like it as it is a lift-the-flap-book and it's not wordy at all, making it a very interactive read.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle is a classic and needs no introduction. I like how they teach  about fruits and at the same time incorporate counting. I love the illustrations in this book and how interactive it is. It's also good for teaching young children about healthy eating habits. Kaitlin loves when we get to the end of the book when they caterpillar becomes a butterfly. She'll always do twirls and dance when we get to that page.

Hope you and your children will have an enjoyable time reading these books. We usually borrow our books from the library but if you're interested in adding them to your child's book collection, you can check out Book Depository. I find that sell a wide variety of books and are sold at lower prices than the stores in Singapore.

*Picture credits to Book Depository.