May 18-22, 2015
Cardboard Garden
We put our creative green thumbs on this week in Nutrition Expedition! I constructed miniature cardboard gardens for each classroom by covering a cardboard box with black "dirt" paper, and surrounding it with green "grass". Using construction paper, I made four different vegetable cutouts for the children to decorate for the garden; eggplants, carrots, potatoes, and radishes.
We started our lesson by playing a mystery garden game. I filled the "mystery bag" with felt vegetables, and each child took a turn to pull out a secret vegetable. They had to figure out what it was, and place it in the "garden" (a felt board). Next, we went to the tables, where they chose their vegetable cutout. They had a blast with the googly eyes, as you can see in the photo above, turning their vegetables into GMO mutants! Ha! After they had put the finishing touches on their crafty veggie, we placed them on sticks, and inserted them into slots in the garden. They turned out adorable, almost good enough to eat (well, that is, if you can overlook all the eyes staring back at you)!
