I then found this bagel set (that doesn’t even have pretend lox).

All of these sets are nice and fulfill all of the requirements of beautifully made, multi-purpose manipulatives.  They provide broad opportunities for play while also introducing children to foods they may not be familiar with.

I found this toast and jam set from England which is pretty delightful

and this egg carton, which I hadn’t seen before but has loads of potential for play.

The eggs open up and inside the children find the yolks.  They can match them, sort them, organize them, cook them, count them, and just play with them.  Nice.

I fell in love with this salad set.  I can picture children tossing and dressing their salads, and scooping out servings.  Unfortunately, for some children, healthy salads may also be foods that they are unfamiliar with so this can acquaint them with crisp and healthy chopped vegetables that make up a tossed salad.

If you want to stick with the plastic sets, I found all sorts of culturally diverse foods.  However, these sets look more authentic, will last, and are easier to manipulate.  Perhaps we will see a better variety in the coming years.  I certainly hope so.

Do you have any great multicultural food sets in your program?

There are many varieties of this sort of toy set.  If and when I ever have an opportunity to set up a preschool program again, I would buy these sets and outfit my housekeeping area with these pretend foods, rather than plastic ones (some of the foods in those sets are unidentifiable).

The opportunities for pretend play with these sets are pretty apparent.  In fact, the play will look a lot like the housekeeping play you are already used to.  But when I look at these sets, I see tons of potential for math talk and math vocabulary. The design of these foods allows for conversations about “some,” “half,” “most,” and “all.”  At first, this math vocabulary will probably need to be facilitated by the grown-ups in the program.  The teacher will ask for “some watermelon” or a “half of an apple.”  You might ask for a sandwich with “most of the cheese” but only “some meat.”  Over time, this “math talk” will become a part of the child’s vocabulary and they will use the words correctly.

Remember that child care in its finest form should mimic the home as much as possible.  Ideally, the conversations above are the kind that  parents have with children during play and mealtimes when they are at home.  We need to provide these experiences in meaningful ways for children while in care outside of the home.  Try using math vocabulary a few times a day and see what happens.  Let us know!

Next week I am going to show you some of the wonderful multicultural food manipulatives I have found.  Wait til you see them.