Thursday, March 20, 2014

This Week's Lunches

Boogs' lunches are inspired by the books we read together. Each night before bed, I read a book or a chapter of a book to Boogs and he reads a book to me. I usually post lunches once a week. To see previous lunches, click the "lunches" label at the end of this post. Boogs' lunches are packed in Easy Lunch Boxes (ELBs) and Laptop Lunchboxes.

The Night Before St. Patrick's Day by Natasha Wing
(Oops, forgot to put the book in the lunch photo) We read this book the night before St. Patrick's Day. Tim and Maureen set traps all over their room in hopes of catching a leprechaun.  They dreamed of getting their hands on a big pot of gold. One of their traps worked! They caught a leprechaun. He was very sneaky and tricked the kids out of their pot of gold. The text of this story is written in the same format at The Night Before Christmas.

In the Laptop Lunchbox: ham & cheese rainbow sandwich, chocolate gold coin, pot of gold dried apricots, homemade spinach tortilla clover chips, Zbar, strawberries, grapes, blackberries, and salad.

Bento Bloggers & Friends have a fun St. Patrick's Day lunch linky HERE.

An Anaconda Ate My Homework! by Alice Schertle
Boogs and I had so much fun with this book. Digby has an amazingly well-stocked backpack. At the end of the school day he adds 11 pages of homework to his backpack and then sets off on his journey home. Unfortunately, a series of events sidetrack him along his way - grabbed by a Raptor, chased by crocodiles, swallowed by an anaconda, thrown around by a gorilla, stalked by a tiger, and rescued by an elephant. Digby's backpack supplies helped him escape each of these trying situations.

I asked Boogs what kind of events would happen to him if he wrote this type of story about losing his homework. Boogs came up with a pretty good chain of disastrous events: tornado carried him to Africa, got hot air balloon to fly home, hot air balloon popped over the Atlantic Ocean, used hot air balloon basket as a boat, sandbags on basket pulled it under water, basket fell apart, used basket pieces to make a raft, floated back to Texas, met a coyote in the woods who ate his homework. Boogs said he would still make it home but his homework would not.

In the ELB lunchbox: spinach tortilla snake circled around mini pb&j homework sheet sandwiches, nest of olive raptors, celery with cream cheese crocodiles, tomato balloons, and strawberries.


National Geographic Kids
Boogs has a subscription to National Geographic Kids (Thanks, Grandmaman!). He looks forward to getting his magazine in the mail every month. The March issue has a story about the twin pandas who were born in Georgia's Zoo Atlanta in July, 2013. Boogs enjoyed reading this article. It discussed the pandas' first 100 days of life.

In the Laptop Lunchbox: pb&j panda sandwiches using the CuteZcute Cutter, crackers, dried apricot, raisins, yogurt, salad with radish panda twins, and applesauce.

 Badger's Fancy Meal by Keiko Kasza
Keiko Kasza has written several sweet stories with beautiful illustrations. This book tells the story of a hungry badger in search of a fancy meal. Badger is tired of eating apples, worms, and root vegetables. He goes in search of a fancier meal. He crosses paths with a mole, a rat, and a rabbit and imagines the meals he can make with them - mole taco with hot spicy salsa, rat burger smothered in cheese sauce, and a rabbit-banana split covered with hot fudge. Poor badger just misses catching each of these meals. The clever ending in this story made Boogs smile.


In the Laptop Lunchbox: mole taco with tomatoes & cheese head surrounded by the rest of the cheese stick, almond butter & jelly rabbit sandwich, Nutella ice cream sandwich balls, banana, cherries, carrots, yogurt, ranch dressing & salsa in small containers. I made the little taco shell by cutting a circle out of a corn tortilla, brushing on a little oil, heating in microwave for 15 seconds to soften it, then draping the tortilla over a bar on the rack in my toaster oven at 375 degrees for five minutes. For a quick tutorial on how to make sandwich balls, click HERE to go to Biting the Hand That Feeds You's instructional post.



Jangles: A Big Fish Story by David Shannon
Jangles is the biggest and oldest fish in the lake. He got his name because of all the fish hooks jangling from his jaws. No one can capture this cunning fish. One day, a boy went fishing on the lake. His boat drifted to the deepest part of the lake. He hooked Jangles on his line. Jangles pulled that boy right out of his boat and down into the water to his home. Jangles told the boy stories about himself and then took the boy back up to his boat. The boy was able to capture Jangles but his heart would not let him keep him.

In the Laptop Lunchbox: almond butter & jelly Jangles sandwich, Goldfish crackers, pistachio lures, Zbar underwater home, salad, and cottage cheese.

Be sure to check out the wonderful sites I link to on my sidebar! If you want to see more book inspired lunches, click on the "lunches" label at the end of this post or go to My Story Themed Lunches board on Pinterest. I would love for you to leave a comment to let me know you stopped by.

16 comments:

  1. These lunches are so cute, what great ideas! Thanks for sharing with the Kid Lit Blog Hop!

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  2. This is so clever! What a valuable learning experience! I'm sure your kids eagerly look forward to how you will interpret the book each time! I would love to try this with my grandkids. I have bento boxes packed for them in the fridge for when they come to spend the day. They love making their own choices and I don't have to spend all day fixing snacks every 10 minutes!

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    1. Thanks, J. My son really loves his story themed lunches. He often helps figure out what food to use to match various parts of the stories.

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  3. Love the panda twins lunch. We subscribe to Natl Geo Kids, too. Great idea to use it to theme a lunch. I may do that myself soon.

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    1. Thanks, Tracy. That magazine series always has cute animals in every issue. It is perfect for lunch ideas. I also like that it is a great resource of non-fiction reading for Boogs.

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  4. Hi Keitha. Thanks for sharing these awesome photos. I can feeling a rumbling in my tummy :-) Love the what you're doing here on your blog.

    All the best.

    David Chuka stopping by on the Kidlit Blog Hop Tour

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  5. Once again, I am astounded at your creativity. We are no where near school age yet, but your blog will be top of our list for ideas, as well as great book recommendations when we do. Thanks so much for linking it in to the kid lit blog hop

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    1. Thanks so much for the kind comment. My son and I have so much fun reading together and thinking of how to make the stories become lunch.

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  6. I love all of the lunches, so creative! The radish Panda twins are adorable.:)

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  7. Gorgeous lunches as always, but I especially love the panda twins - so cute!
    Thank you for linking up to Fun Food Friday!

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  8. Badger's Fancy Meal looks like a total riot! lol That would certainly provide inspiration to even me to put together some cool lunches. I love your creations Keitha - thanks so much for linking into the Kid Lit Blog Hop!

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    1. Thanks, Renee! Boogs and I have fun trying to figure out how to turn things from the stories we read into lunch. I'd love to see one of your cool lunches!

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