On Tuesday, I told the students that I had been out to my aunt's garden over the weekend and she had given me 21 gourds for our class. I was asked, "What is a gourd?" and this sparked such an interesting discussion! There were so many ideas about what a gourd might be, ranging from a long stick to a baby elephant! I then put a few gourds in bags, and had the students feel the gourd and talk with a partner about how their thinking had changed. They then went to their journals and created a picture of what the image looked like in their head, given the clue that they were pale yellow, orange and a few had green on them. This was the result:
Many students thought that a gourd was a pumpkin after the bag experiment, but a few thought it was a pepper and one even thought it might be a piggy bank (there was a tail, after all). When I revealed the gourds, we talked about how they looked and felt, comparing them by size, shape and colour. There was great discussion about stems and guesses for why the bigger gourds didn't have stems. They each chose a gourd to keep, and found a good "saving" spot for it in the classroom. They were sent home to think about how they might design their gourd in the morning.
When they came back, they used Sharpie markers to create designs. I was so impressed by the uniqueness of each one, and the time students took for decorating!
No comments:
Post a Comment