The Great Pancake Escape By Paul Many. Illustrations by Scott Goto Walker, NY, 2002 ISBN 0-8027-8795-9      "You will believe that pancakes can fly!"   Fun and Games Pancake Day/(Mardi Gras) Reclaim Mardi Gras for your students with Pancake Day. Celebrated on the same day as Mardi Gras (the day before Lent), on Pancake Day, cooks used up all the good stuff in their kitchens making--What else?--pancakes. Think of it as an occasion to exploit the teaching opportunities presented by this fun, child-friendly food. By the way, this day is still celebrated in England and other places as "Pancake Day." While you're at it you might also look into Pancake Day as officially celebrated in Olney, England and Liberal, Kansas. How to do it: Designate one day--Mardi Gras or otherwise--during the school year as "Pancake Day" during which you conduct any or all of the activities below. Also see the pancake day activities (at http://teachers.net/lessons/posts/449.html) posted by California elementary school teacher Elaine Magud. Read All About Them You will find an annotated list of picture books with a pancake theme on this site (at http://www.utoledo.edu/~pmany/panbooks.html) which you may wish to select from and read on Pancake Day or on the days leading up to it. Here's an abbreviated version: Pancakes, Pancakes! Written and illustrated by Eric Carle. Knopf (New York, 1970) Miss Mabel's Table by Deborah Chandra, Max Grover (Illustrator) Harcourt Brace Jovanovich (San Diego, 1994) Mr. Wolf's Pancakes by Jan Fearnley M E Media LLC (2001) The Runaway Tortilla by Eric A. Kimmel, Randy Cecil (Illustrator) Winslow (2000) The Runaway Latkes by Leslie Kimmelman, Paul Yalowitz.(Illustrator) Whitman & Co. (Morton Grove, Ill., 2000) The Great Pancake Escape by Paul Many, Scott Goto (Illustrator) Walker & Co.. (NY, 2002) Kitaq Goes Ice Fishing by Margaret Nicolai, David Rubin (Illustrator) Alaska Northwest Books (Seattle, Wash, 1998) If You Give a Pig a Pancake by Laura Numeroff, Felicia Bond (Illustrator) Laura Geringer Book (NY, 1998) Pancakes for Breakfast by Tomie de Paola. Scholastic, 1978 Penelope Penguin's Pancake Party by Debbie Pollard Pentland Press(2000) Curious George Makes Pancakes From the character created by Margret Rey, H. A. Rey (Illustrator) Written and illustrated in the style of the Rey's by Vipah Interactive. Houghton Mifflin (Boston, 1998) Pancakes & Pies : a Russian Folk Tale by Carole Tate Bedrick, (NY, 1989) Sunday by Synthia Saint James. Whitman & Co. (Morton Grove, Ill. 1996) Perfect Pancakes, If You Please by William Wise, Richard Egielski (Illustrator) Dial Books for Young Readers, (NY, 1997) Fry Up a Stack Using your favorite pancake mix (or recipes on this site) and an electric griddle or two, make pancakes in the classroom. Depending on the age and motor skills of your group, you may wish to do everything from bringing in pre-made pancakes and heating them in a microwave oven, to having students work with you to mix the ingredients. Many math and motor-skills teaching opportunities present themselves in such an activity and may be worth the potential mess. Put down lots of plastic.(The actual cooking is best left to adults, and should be done in a situation where the hot griddle is safe from inquisitive hands. It may be advisable to have a parent take on cooking duties.) Syrup is a necessity although you might forgo butter or margarine. Be sure to have plenty of wet wipes or damp paper towels in readiness for cleanup of sticky fingers and faces. Maze Help Ned, Louise and their big brother find the pancakes. Print out and duplicate this maze for your students. Computer Games If you have computer access in your classroom, you may wish to have students play the game provided on the International House of Pancakes kid's site. Coloring You will also find some illustrations of pancake characters to print out and color at the IHOP site. Here's a pancake placemat to print out and color. You may also have students draw and color their favorite scene from The Great Pancake Escape. Sing Out The Great Pancake Escape may be sung to the tune of "O, Susanna." (See the chorus on the last page of the book.) Use the sheet music provided on this site, or have have the class play the melody on kazoos (can be bought cheaply as party favors). Appoint different children to sing different verses. May be combined with "Act Out" below. Students act out a scene while they sing it. Here's another simple song simply titled "Pancakes." You may wish to sing it along with one of the activities below. You may also find that the chorus to The Great Pancake Escape is good for this purpose. Act Out Students may pick a scene from The Great Pancake Escape or one of their favorite pancake-themed books (See list) and either present a tableau from the book (a posed imitation of one of the scenes) or actually act it out. Pancake Flipping Contest 1) Have students make "skillets" using a ruler duct-taped to the bottom of an aluminum pie plate. (See illustration.) 2) Have each student make a "pancake" at least 5 inches in diameter out of clay or modeling dough. You may also use a lid from a plastic container, or the plastic lid of a coffee can. 3) Students put their pancakes in their skillets and hold the skillets out in front of them by the ruler/handle at arm's length with one hand. 4) Say "Ready, Set, FLIP." Each time you say "FLIP," each student has to flip his or her pancake. The pancake must go at least one foot in the air and turn over completely for a flip to count. (For younger or less dexterous students, the pancake may simply go up and down without flipping.) 5) You may occasionally have long pauses between flips. It will become increasingly difficult for students to hold the skillets out in front of them. 6) When a student drops a pancake, he or she is removed from play. 7) Repeat until only one student remains as the winner. Skillet Races Important Safety Notice: In the following instead of the "skillets" described above, use the aluminum pie plates alone without a ruler handle so that students are not injured from falls on rulers. You may wish to wait for nice weather and hold these activities outdoors. Race 1: 1) Students are assigned to relay teams of four each. 2) On a marked 50 or 100 foot course, students must race to one end and back, then flip the pancake into the pie plate of the next student who must run to one end and back until all four students on a team have run. 3) If a student drops the pancake, he or she may pick it up, place it back in the pan and continue to run. Race 2: Same as above, except that instead of merely running with the pancakes on the pie plate, students must continuously flip the pancake while running. Other Games Flipping in the Dark Objective: Catch as many pancakes as you can in your skillet while blindfolded. Materials: Aluminum pie pan "skillet" (see above), "pancakes" made from clay or plastic coffee can tops as above, plastic spatulas, blindfolds. How to play: 1) Lay out three "pancakes" for each player on each player's desk or table. 2) Each player receives a plastic spatula and a skillet. 3) Blindfold each player. 4) Each player, holding the plastic spatula in one hand and the skillet in the other must scoop up a pancake and flip it at least one foot into the air and catch it in the skillet. 5) The first player to flip all three pancakes into the skillet without losing the others already in it, wins. All artwork on this site ©2002 Scott Goto  Return to main pancake page.  Return to Paul Many home page.