Happy Meal Chef Headed to London Olympics

My daughter Elayna is a McDonald's Happy Meal Chef for the next few months. Read more about that here. She won a trip to the London Olympics and the chance to participate in a global Champions of Food cooking challenge. She will also go to McDonald's headquarters in October to cook with McDonald's executive chef to help develop new ideas for the Happy Meal.

In preparation for the Olympics we have been watching the news and reading magazines and books from the library.  I have also been busy pinning Olympic craft ideas on Pinterest and have found some excellent ideas. I like the free printables and have printed a few to take with us on our trip.

Below are some of the other finalists for the #happymealchefs experience. Elayna and Sarah R. are the grand prize winners who are official Happy Meal Chefs and will be part of the cooking challenge. You can see their  contest videos by clicking on the image below.

My daughter and husband will take part in the McDonald's Happy Meal Chef Champion's of Food cooking contest in London just before the Olympics start.  They were asked to develop a new recipe they would like to possibly see in a McDonald's Happy Meal. Other contestants are coming from Germany, Japan and Brazil.  They are excited to be involved in the process of helping the Happy Meals become healthier.

This image is the McDonald's Olympic Menu. Notice they have fruit bags and carrot sticks with the happy meals.  I hope they offer those in the states soon.

I thought this infographic was interesting too.

I will be going with them to London and we will be taking turns blogging about their experience.
They will be attending several Olympic events and meeting some of the athletes.
We'll be cheering for Team USA!!!

Traveling Reading Buddies

A reading buddy can help kids get excited about reading. You can use this idea in the classroom, in Sunday school, or at home.


I grabbed this stuffed turtle at Kohl’s for $5 back in 2011. You could use any stuffed animal.  We had a goal in children’s Sunday school (we call it Primary) to have each child read the scriptures (Bible) at home with their families during the year.  Each week a family would be selected to take “Scripture Turtle” home with them.

He has a little back pack filled with scripture cards. They told a short synopsis of a story and the scripture reference on one side and pictures on the other side. You could add cards for whatever you are focusing on with instructions to let parents know the plan.  Ask the kids to sit and read to their reading buddy each day while they are visiting. They got them for a week then returned them at church to go home with another child.
Travel Souvenirs
Each child could add a souvenir to the buddy when they took him home.  Look how he started with just the backpack.  Now he has a Justin Bieber button, Dr. Seuss button, 3-D glasses, a tie, silly band, handmade friendship bracelet, sweat band, arrowhead necklace, pinwheel, missionary tag, and the red sweater above (he has lost a few things along the way).  My favorite was the knit pumpkin hat. A mom knit it right onto the head of the turtle and stuffed it.

I got the traveling reading buddy idea from my mother-in-law who did this when she taught first grade. Look at her Booker Bunny and Booker Bear below. Aren’t they so cute? And very well loved and read to. I borrowed her backpack for our turtle.


Our family got to take ‘Scripture Turtle’ camping. He smelled like campfire for a while after that. We loved reading with him around the campfire.

HOME READING BUDDY
You can make your own designated reading buddy to keep at home.  Have your child read to them. Let them take their buddy in the car around town and on longer road trips during the summer and add souvenirs to them. Encourage kids to read in the car (if it doesn’t make them sick). Let them know their buddy likes to be read to every day.
Have fun reading this summer!