Children will become acquainted with how bread crosses cultures.

All over the world meals have special significance. In almost every culture, people celebrate special occasions with some type of meal: Christmas dinner, Passover Seders, wedding banquets, etc. When someone dies family and neighbors will often respond by bringing food. The very act of eating is a sharing of life. This activity examines this bond through bread.

Pre-Story Discussion

Materials--
Samples of different types of bread
Picture of wheat field
Flour

• Bread is one of the most important foods we eat. People almost everywhere eat bread. It helps us grow strong and healthy.
• Show and discuss the different types of bread you have. Talk about their differences and similarities. Have children name other types of bread.
• All bread comes from grain. [Show picture of wheat field.] The grains are planted in the ground. The sun and rain helps the seeds grow.
• The ripe grain is picked and ground into flour. [Show the flour.] The flour is made into bread. Does your family make bread? What do they put with the flour to make bread?

Story

Everybody Bakes Bread, by Norah Dooley and Peter J. Thornton (Illustrator)
From Kirkus Reviews
The team behind Everybody Cooks Rice, returns to the same multi ethnic neighborhood on a rainy day when everyone is inside baking bread. Carrie and her little brother are fighting, so their mother sends Carrie out to borrow "a three-handled rolling pin." As she makes the rounds of the neighbors' houses on this fool's errand, Carrie samples Barbadian coconut bread, Indian chapatis (readers never see these), Southern cornbread, pita, challah, pupusas, and her own mother's Italian bread. Recipes for all seven breads follow; adult help is required for most. Although the plot is very much driven by the mission--to show bread from various traditions--and subplots about a planned kickball game or large puddles only pad it out, this is an appealing combination of story and cookbook.

Other Books

Bread and Jam for Frances, by Russell Hoban and Lillian Hoban (Illustrator)
Frances, one of children's best-loved characters for over 30 years, now springs to life even more in Bread and Jam for Frances,beautifully re-illustrated in sparkling full color by Lillian Hoban. In this memorable story, Frances decides that bread and jam are all she wants to eat, and her understanding parents grant her wish at breakfast, lunch, dinner, and even snack time.Can there ever be too much bread and jam?

Bread Is for Eating, by David Gershator, Phillis Gershator, and Emma Shaw-Smith (Illustrator)
A bilingual, rhythmic celebration of bread, from farmer to baker.

Bread, Bread, Bread, by Ann Morris and Ken Heyman (Illustrator)
What kind of bread do you eat? A bagel? A tortilla? A baguette? All over the world, wherever there are human beings, someone is eating bread. Ann Morris's simple text and Ken Heyman's dazzling full-color photographs reveal for young readers how people eat -- and how people live -- the world over.