look at our wheat…photo taken exactly one week from planting.
since it comes from organic wheat seed, we nibble on it. some kids ate quite a bit, tearing it off or actually getting scissors.
it is surprisngly sweet after you chew it a bit.
and wow, look at this:
no mystery left here.
we did this to fill our brown bag and ribbon easter baskets, but this could be used for any spring project.
i told the class i didn’t have any of the plastic easter grass so what would we do? cut our own? oops, raining (that was handy). and oops, this was the same day we pretended we didn’t have scissors. then i told them we would use a machine. oooooooooo.
i can’t believe i haven’t done this sooner. we talked safety rules and why this was okay to do at preschool. we talked about rules if they have one of these at home or if they see one somewhere (that they must ask a grown up first, etc). we looked at the cutting part and saw that it wasn’t knives or scissors at all. we looked at the opening and saw that a finger can’t fit in.
then we shredded paper.
look at those faces.
it was delightful to say the least.
they waited their turn, then chose a shade of green and turned it into grass!
i decided to use a piece of cardboard and left over orange paper to make a BIG version of our collage carrots (in case that maybe real-maybe not real easter bunny is really hungry).
again, we pretended there were no scissors. again, we used up all the glue we had (for real).
and i should not be surprised that my TTH class thought to dig through the shelves to find orange/green ribbon and lace. i love that!
it wasn’t dry when we left school for easter break, so i am excited to see it finished and shiny from all the glue.
i was inspired and changed plans. we pretended our school didn’t have scissors and we needed the paper to be small enough to cover the cardboard carrot shapes. hmmmm, shall we tear it with hands? rip it with teeth? both techniques were tested. tearing by hand won out.
show and tell this week is “easter decorations.” we’ve had crosses, palm branches, easter eggs, and easter bunnies. we have rabbit books out in honor of spring and making these carrots (a.k.a. easter bunny food) seemed like a natural project.
i loved seeing the variety. smooth, bumpy, sparse, heavy with layers.
but then i was asked the question, “is the easter bunny real?” out come the cries of YES and NO and a little girl looking at me for answers. in these moments, i have learned to defer to the parents. to explain that some of our preschool friends think yes and some think no, so find out what your family thinks. she was satisfied, but smirked a little and as she was walking away said, “no… right?”
simply bringing easter eggs in the classroom enhances play…which enhances learning.
we are collecting them for a project to be done the week after easter, so thanks to families we have LOTS of eggs to play with now!
for our project we need the tops and bottom separated. cutting them apart turned into a spontaneous center (my favorite kind!).
we did a formal “egg toss” game. sitting while throwing was the hardest!
the sorting and stacking, filling and dumping is so important!
newcreationpreschool.com 