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Teacher’s Guide
BASED ON THE BOOK “IS YOUR HAIR MADE OF DONUTS?”
WRITTEN BY JOY FELDMAN ILLUSTRATED BY BETH SLOCUM AND AMANDA
MUELLER
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Based on the book Is your Hair Made of Donuts? by Joy Feldman,
Illustrated by Beth Slocum and Amanda Mueller. Copyright 2012
2
A Note from the AuthorNutrition and what children eat is
inextricably tied to their well-being. When children make excellent
food choices, and are well nourished, it is easy to see that
healthy child as resilient and eager to learn. Why? Food is the
body’s basic fuel and it requires a nutrient rich and balanced diet
in order to work properly. The body, an energy-producing machine,
requires stable fuel such as proteins, vegetables and healthy fats.
Sugar, carbohydrates, sodas, fruit, breads, pasta, and candy are
not stable fuels. They do not strengthen the body. It is my hope,
that through my book, Is Your Hair Made of Donuts?, that children
will begin learning and understanding that the right foods
matter.
In my experience, children are especially vulnerable to poor
nutrition and are very responsive to good nutrition. They have
tremendous internal demands on their bodies for growth and
development. There is in fact a major construction project going on
all of the time with children as you are building
a system and laying down the structures for a lifetime. When you
are tending a garden you can see your plants wilt when they do not
receive what they need to be maintained.
Today, many of the symptoms we see in children can be lessened
with proper support. We don’t put milk in our cars for fuel—we use
what would be right for the connections to be complete. For a light
bulb to be on, the light needs to be plugged into a source. Like
these examples, the body needs to be engaged in the process of
breaking down fuel to produce energy in a steady and even way. It
is my experience that there really are no short cuts around good
basic eating and plenty of rest. It is my hope that this guide will
be effective in helping you instruct your students on the
importance of excellent nutrition.
Some children remember factual tidbits, but all children
remember stories.
For more Donut fun, please visit:
www.IsYourHairMadeofDonuts.com
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Based on the book Is your Hair Made of Donuts? by Joy Feldman,
Illustrated by Beth Slocum and Amanda Mueller. Copyright 2012
3
About the Book The Blossom Family sees things differently and
they do things differently in a world that supersizes everything.
Is your Hair Made of Donuts? is no ordinary adventure. Adoringly
absurd, and filled with laugh-out-loud appeal, this delightful
picture book focuses on two siblings, Matthew and Madison Blossom,
who do not consume junk food – no sugar, no processed foods and no
chemical additives. Their mom does not allow them to eat donuts,
candy, chocolate, fast food, soda, chew-ing gum, brightly colored
drinks or juices, puddings, neon green, blue or hot pink foods that
were created to last forever. Come join them as they unexpectedly
head into an amusing, educational and delicious journey towards
healthy choices where they learn that “they are what they eat.”
Your appetite for this magical story, Is your Hair Made of Donuts?
will simply be insatiable.
Invite your students to join these two inspirational and
charming children that have been educated through their own senses
about the benefits of eating healthy. Is your Hair Made of Donuts?
empowers young people to take control of their diet and health with
each delicious bite of knowledge found in this magical journey.
PSSST…Make sure to check your hair for “rainbow colored sprinkles
or are they sparkles,” when you finish reading this scrumptious
adventure.
Created to teach and captivate children’s intelligence and
reasoning, this guide carries forth the themes and concepts found
in Is your Hair Made of Donuts? into cross curriculum
instruction.
KIDS, PARENTS AND EDUCATORS THAT READ THIS BOOK WILL LEARN:
• Benefits of eating healthy foods• The philosophy of why “we
are what we eat”• How to make healthy food choices• Leadership
qualities• How to be respectful of their parents’
values and belief• How to be open minded to new experiences• To
have good judgment• About self-worth and self-esteem• How to make
good choices• Three healthful easy to prepare recipes
MATT & MADDIE’S MATH
MATT & MADDIE’S SCIENCE
MATT & MADDIE’S GROUP SKILLS
MATT & MADDIE’S LANGUAGE ARTS
MATT & MADDIE’S WRITING
MATT & MADDIE’S SCHOOL FUN!
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Page 5-7
Page 8
Page 10-12
Page 13
Page 14-15
Teacher’s Guide
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Based on the book Is your Hair Made of Donuts? by Joy Feldman,
Illustrated by Beth Slocum and Amanda Mueller. Copyright 2012
4
Get the kids excited at your school about nutritious food! Matt
and Maddie vow to eat their healthy food when they understand that
they are what they eat. And what better way to teach children this
age-old concept than old fashioned cooking. Cooking with the kids
is an excellent math activity as it involves fractions, measuring
and estimating.
CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES• Cooking together helps build
self-confidence, team building skills as well as a sense of
responsibility.
MATERIALS: See the recipe section of Is your Hair Made of
Donuts?
INSTRUCTIONS• Have the children choose a recipe.• Gather all the
ingredients, utensils and additional equipment you might require.•
After you cook with the children, have the children assist you in
clean up.• Any leftovers could be sent home with the children to
share with their family.
MATT & MADDIE’S MATH COOKING
Teacher tips
Cooking is an activity that requires close supervision and
careful plan-ning. For this reason, 20 students is the maximum
number recommend-ed for a safe and quality cooking experience. If
you have more than 20 students, please split the group in half and
have one group cooking and the other group discussing an
agriculture activity. Try to have at least one or two parent
volunteers in place to assist you so that the activity goes
smoothly.
DID YOU KNOW
500,000 gallons of Kool-Aid is consumed annually. 550 million
Big Macs are sold each year in the U.S. alone. Do the math and
that’s about 17 per second!
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Based on the book Is your Hair Made of Donuts? by Joy Feldman,
Illustrated by Beth Slocum and Amanda Mueller. Copyright 2012
5
Turn to the page in Is your Hair Made of Donuts? where there is
an illustration of two figures depicted (one is strongly
constructed and one is propped up with broken wood–one eats healthy
and one does not.) Discuss this topic with the children. Let them
share their opinions about junk food with you. The next step will
be growing an herb garden as a means to show what happens when you
take care of a plant and when you do not take care of a plant. Same
with the body– if you do not take care of the body what will
happen?
MATT & MADDIE’S SCIENCEGROWING AN HERB GARDEN
Teacher tips
If you’re trying to get children interested in gardening,
provide them with their own child-sized gardening tools. Tiny
gardening tools are more widely available today and helps to keep
the frustration level down for little ones.
Variety of herbs Children love mint varieties like peppermint
and spearmint, as well as other plants in the mint family like
lemon balm and catnip (for the family cat, of course). Other
favorites are apple mint, chocolate mint and orange mint. Mints are
very hardy, so they can take quite a bit of abuse, too. Fast
growing herbs like cilantro are great starter herbs as well. They
offer an instant payoff and can be used in a kid-designed summer
recipe like tacos pretty easily.
CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES• Teaches children about better
nutrition and exercise, and encourages
them to become good stewards of the land.
MATERIALS • Potting soil• Your choice of herbs• Small containers
to grow the herbs in,• A window with 6 or more hours of light a day
or a grow light.
INSTRUCTIONS• Discuss with the children what herbs are?• Discuss
what they are used for?• What are their favorite herbs?• Bring in
some herbs and let the children smell them, touch them
and taste them.• Choose your seedlings. Make sure your seed
packets have not expired.
Always buy extra seeds, as only a fraction of what you plant
will grow. Look for the kinds of herbs that flourish indoors such
as chamomile, basil, mint, rosemary, oregano and lavender.
• Be creative and place the herbs in leftover containers or old
cans. You can also buy gardening pots to ensure proper
drainage.
• Aside from using potting soil, make sure you to include some
sand and a small amount of lime.
• Place gravel on the bottom part of the container for better
drainage before putting soil in the container.
• Make sure the children take turns watering all the plants to
ensure that you will succeed in growing herbs inside.
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Based on the book Is your Hair Made of Donuts? by Joy Feldman,
Illustrated by Beth Slocum and Amanda Mueller. Copyright 2012
6
Continued on the next page.... • To demonstrate the point of the
two characters in the book who are
poorly constructed and well constructed, show the children the
picture and ask them about the plants they are growing? What would
happen if they were not taken care of ? No food, no water, no
sunlight ( you might even pull a grown plant and not take care of
it and show the children the results. In the book, it is mentioned”
To build a tall building you need to have the right materials so
the building doesn’t wobble. And your bodies need the right foods
to make you strong.” The same with the plant. If you do not take
care of a plant it will wilt. If you do not take care of the body
and feed it properly, it will be sick and weak.
Tips and Tricks for Your First Herb GardenHerbs like cilantro
and dill grow quickly. Start them early and keep pinching them back
when you see flower buds. Most herbs will stop putting the bulk of
their energy into creating new leaves once they flower. Leaves are
typically what you want to cultivate, so delaying flowering is the
goal here. The fast growth spurt some herbs put on when the temps
get hotter in sum-mer is called bolting. Plants shoot up quickly,
start to flower, and be-gin to look scraggly. Removing the buds and
harvesting around a third of the plant will keep herbs viable
longer.
HarvestingIt’s a good rule to wait until a plant is at least a
few inches tall (this will vary from plant to plant) and a bit
bushy before you start harvesting leaves. Never take more than a
quarter or a third of the plant at one time, and wait for at least
that much to re-grow before tak-ing more. Some herbs like chives,
parsley and tarragon, taste much better fresh. For these herbs,
drying isn’t the best choice. You can wash and freeze herbs in
freezer bags, or chop them into a bowl of water, stir and freeze
them into ice cubes. The cubes can then be placed in freezer bags
for single serving portions you can add to soups or stews over the
winter months.
Teacher tips
DID YOU KNOW
Each American eats an average of 23 pounds of pizza a year.
Americans consume 100 acres of pizza each day, or 350 slices
per second. That would make 36,500 acres of pizza eaten each year.
3 billion pizzas are sold in America every year.
