Sunday, April 13, 2014

Growing Chefs: First Visit

The class was super excited to meet the chefs on Thursday and find out what Growing Chefs was all about.  They were so engaged in the discussion about gardens and vegetables which made me very proud and the chefs were pleased too.  It's so wonderful to have such an eager bunch.

In small groups the students had a close up look at the seeds they were going to be planting.  They had to observe them carefully and guess what kind of vegetable seed they were.  Some were definitely harder than others.  The trickiest and most interesting one had to have been the seeds for the beets.  They looked like tiny little rocks and were really hard.

Then there was time for whole group sharing before the unveiling of each vegetable the class would be growing.  The chefs brought in full grown veggies as examples to show the children.  Finally, it was time for planting!  The chefs will be back on Earth Day, which we're all pretty excited about.  For now, we'll be lovingly tending to our window garden.

Earlier in the week we read "The Garden" from Frog and Toad are Friends, by Arnold Lobel.  We had a good chuckle at how Toad tried to get his seeds to grow.  Click the link to watch the claymation episode, which the class also loved.






















Thursday, April 10, 2014

Forever Friends

In Forever Friends, by Carin Berger, seasons come, seasons go.  But a little brown bunny and a graceful blue bird discover that true friendship lasts forever.  The layering of different papers and textures inspired the cherry blossom trees.


This page below was the inspiration behind the art project.  The supplies included blue paper, a roll of wood grain drawer liner (adhesive - sticker backing...dollar store), painted pink paper, green crepe paper and shredded kraft paper.  Chocolate eggs optional (ok, let's be honest, a total must).  












   

Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Peacocks

We read Three Hens and a Peacock, by Lester L. Laminack, focusing on the big idea in the story.  After predicting what the story would be about, we dove in and read the first 'chunk'.  I stopped the students and had them sketch an important image and ask a question about what were they wondering?  We shared and then continued on, stopping one more time to sketch and question.  At the end of the books we discussed the big idea and why it was important.




We also read Steve Jenkins (love him) book, Bees, Snails and Peacock Tails, about animals and patterns.  Then we were ready to make oil pastel peacocks!




Students focused on drawing a pear shaped body in blue before colouring in it and adding legs, an eye and beak.  Then, long feather lines were drawn using the clock as a reference (for example, 12 o'clock, 3 o'clock).  Lots of additional feathery lines were added, before the brightly coloured eyes were added at the end.  Colourful feathers were hot glued onto the head as a finishing touch.  Didn't they turn out great!