24th January Peanut Butter Day

It is  Peanut Butter Day. Have you ever wondered where does peanut butter comes from? Well - it dates back to the Aztecs and Incas around 1000 BC. When it's homemade, peanut butter is a great source of vitamin E, B6, niacin, calcium, potassium and iron! It also contains protein and healthy monounsaturated fat. It is healthiest with no added sugar or salt.

There are so many children's books which have peanut butter in the title, but often it is a name for a character and not the spread. Also it often appears with Jelly as this is a favourite american combination.

If your students are curious about how peanut butter is made there are books to help 

 

Want to make a peanut butter sandwich?

Want to have fun with the silly peanut butter rhyme?

Peanut Butter and Jelly  by Nadine Bernard Westcott

Terry Border has fun with Peanut Butter toast as a character in his food series

Now looking at the connection between peanut butter and jelly...

12th July Jello Day

Jello has been an American household staple since the 1800s. It is more than just a jiggling, sweet dessert. For many, it is also a craft ingredient, a party favorite, and, for many, a nostalgic trip down memory lane. What Americans call jello Australians call  jelly.

Australians feel similarly about Aeroplane Jelly which first began in 1927 when Sydney tram driver Bert Appleroth had success selling jelly crystals which he first made in a bathtub. This small backyard operation evolved into one of Australia's largest family-operated food manufacturers before it was sold to McCormick Foods Australia in 1995.

Who thought there'd be a day when you had an excuse to make jelly, say all the fun jelly poems you know and read books about it while you eat it. Bliss and sugar overload!

If you're in the USA you could read Jello Man  and learn about the its history.

Jello is a tasty treat that can be eaten any time of the year. Did you know that jello was first created around the latter 1800's by Pearle Wait. Its main ingredients are gelatin, sugar, and water which results in jello's wobbly texture. In this delicious story, a bowl of jello turns into a tasty treat!

If your elsewhere there are more books that feature jelly.

I love doing the rhyme Jelly on a Plate  with my preschool classes. We are all so good at wobble wobbling. It is also the perfect verse to innovate on with other foods.

               

    Jelly on a plate

    Jelly on a plate

    Wibble wobble

    Wibble wobble

    Jelly on a plate.

Look for other poems in Michael Rosen's  Jelly Boots, Smelly Boots  and Brian Patten's Gargling With Jelly.

Then these fun stories

I've often wondered whether the reason Americans don't have jelly like us is because they call jam, 'jelly'. When I was a child my mother made apple jelly and blackcurrant jelly and it was in a bottle like jam, but it was smooth and clear and didn't have any lumps of fruit in it like what we call jam. 

It used to fascinate me when I heard of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, because I thought that that meant they had jelly on sandwiches, until someone put me straight. Nadine Bernard Westcott's book Peanut Butter and Jelly  then made more sense.