How Do You Feed A Hungry Giant?

Have you ever asked yourself that question?  Ok... ok... I really had never asked myself that question either.... at least not until this month! A few weeks ago at a staff meeting my principal asked if anyone had any ideas on how to get our student body excited about having a food drive for the holidays.   Pop!  That's the moment that a clever and quirky little children's book that I had found about a year ago popped right into my head!   The book is called....

It's the cutest thing ever!  It's full of interesting flaps, holes and pop-ups.  The kids LOVE it!   Take a peek at the book's video trailer....

How Do You Feed a Hungry Giant? from Workman Publishing on Vimeo.


You will instantly fall in love with the heart-warming Giant... and your kids will learn a wonderful lesson about helping others!   {The book even includes a mini-cookbook of "GIANT" kid-friendly recipes!}

On "kick-off day" for our food drive, each teacher introduced the food drive concept and then read the book and showed the video trailer for the book.  I made a few 8 foot tall Giants (out of bulletin board paper)  and placed on the walls at school.  I also contacted Workman Publishers -- who were INCREDIBLE -- to request their help with promotional items for our food drive.   They sent me promotional posters, offered multiple book discounts and even were willing to try and set up a Skype session with the author!  They have a whole PDF packet full of certificates, coloring pages, and activity ideas to use along with the book.  {They actually do that with many of their children's books...so check them out if you need a "Reading Night" theme!} Our school set a goal of collecting a specific number of food items before Thanksgiving break.   We told the kiddos that if we met our goal...or collected more, then each class would receive a monster cookie party {recipe in the book!}.  We ran to the local grocery store and shared our food drive project with them and they were happy to donate hundreds of paper bags to us.  We printed off food drive fliers, stapled them to the bags, and sent them home.  The very next day, the canned and boxed goods started rolling in!    Each day, a few older students count the donations and we chart our progress for students to see by building a can pyramid on the wall near one of the paper hungry giants.  We post one paper can on the pyramid for every 10 items collected.   Will we make our goal??  Well... we still have a few days left....but I have no doubt we will successfully "feed the hungry giant."  When the food drive is complete, our church's social ministry team will divide the donations and deliver them to local families in need.   

So... take that little idea and file it away just in case your principal asks you for a good "food drive" theme!  And did I mention....this fit in perfectly with our kinder-story of the week, "Jack and the Beanstalk?"   :)  Gotta love those GIANT thematic ties!    Betcha' you have already guessed that on this "Fun Friday" we will be planting bean seeds... and doing lots of comparing and contrasting of beanstalk stories...but more on that later!

Here is glimpse at my homemade Giants!  They look small in the pictures...but they are really 8 foot tall! 

 

Here is a pic of the giant posted at school...

and yep... that's me beside him!