Last night second-grader Lauren, preschooler Dave, and I constructed hungry happy hippo hotdogs for dinner. This fun food project was one installment in our weekly attempt to teach Dave the alphabet and ready him for kindergarten. Last night's letter of the week was 'H'. Dave drew upper and lower case 'H's and we all made exaggerated 'h' sounds in numerous words beginning with 'H'.
I admit to an ulterior motive for creating this game of hungry happy hippos out of hotdogs. Years ago, when I was a dog trainer, one strategy we used to stop unwanted canine behavior was to train the dog to perform the behavior on command, and once mastered, we would never give the command. Last night I decided to apply this tactic to stopping the 'G' for Gross table manners of my children. To train them not to play with their food, last night I attempted to put it on command.
I told them that after they ate their zucchini, they could make their own hungry happy hippos. As they ate, they watched me cut a bun-length hotdog in half cross-wise. I set aside one half for the body; the other half I cut into equal size pieces. The rounded end I used for the head. The other pieces I sliced length-wise and used one slice for each leg. To attach the legs and head to the body, I then broke toothpicks in half and used a half-toothpick to connect the head and each leg into the body.
Upon seeing my completed hungry happy hippo hotdog, the children were eager to construct their own. Lauren enthusiastically applied her artistic energy and quickly displayed her completed hippo. Dave's five-year-old fingers struggled with the project. This time, playing with his food wasn't as fun as he had anticipated. But most importantly, our alphabet game did teach him all about the letter 'H'.
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For hotdogs from heaven, here come:
Bavaria Old Fashioned Natural Casing Wieners
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More 'H' foods!
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Honey Acres Mini Four Pack Crate
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Havarti Cheese in the Organic Wisconsin Cheese Gift Box from Cedar Grove
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