concept of" made of"

A very important lesson on "what are things made of"done.It is difficult to explain the concept of "made of".How do you explain to a 4 year old -what is a table made of".I felt it difficult to put it across to Prisha this complicated thing as she looked pretty blank.Then we hit it off at an answer.She has seen cake being made roti being made.I asked her what is roti made of?she looked puzzled.when I put it simply as ...roti is made of atta.She looked educated!!I am now going to work on this .show her from things around and take her to difficult concept. to which Mrs.Hudlikar put across rules of teaching.We know them but it was only after she spelt them out that it struck us how it was so important.She said a good teacher teaches with the concept of teaching the child from simple to complex, from specific to generic and from known to unknown.How true.From simple things we learn difficult concepts,from a specific thing eg. a red apple ,golden apple , green apple,etc I know a generic or class they belong to..i.e . apples.So specific to generic and from known to unknown.If I know that what a living thing is I can learn what a non living thing is.What a way of learning.we are blessed to have her in our lives.