A Very Hungry Kindergartener

We read Eric Carle's classic story The Very Hungry Caterpillar. We discussed how the insect ate and ate to prepare for its metamorphosis. I asked the students to apply the same pattern from the story to what they were learning in Kindergarten. On Monday I learned how to read. On Tuesday I learned...., etc. Then the last day was what they were going to turn into.

Insect Pasta Sculptures

We use the concept of Rules from Kaplan's Depth and Complexity to list what is always true about insects. They have 6 legs, 3 body parts, are born from eggs. Then the students apply those "rules" to invent their own insects using different kinds of pasta. They wrote about what their insect was called and what habitat they lived in.

Here are their sculptures:

Similes and Self-Portraits

I LOVE to use the book:

to help teach similes. It's a fun story about a little girl who loves chasing chickens. There's a particular one she wants to catch and tries several different things to lure her out.

I had the students draw self-portraits and write similes to describe themselves.

Painting Like Artists

I am a big proponent of keeping art in schools. Students need to be taught how to channel their creativity. I got some small canvases from Amazon and we made palettes of paint. Usually I am very specific about not mixing up the colors-especially if we are using watercolors. But for this activity I gave them extra plates where they could mix colors and experiment. My favorite part of the experience was listening to their conversations. They were asking each other how to make "baby pink" and "baby purple" like we have baby blue. They talked about wanted to make their unique.

We looked at paintings by different artists and how they painted a vase of flowers. Then the students could paint flowers in any style they wished.

Here's what my little artists came up with:

How Will You Make the World More Beautiful

We read one of my all-time favorite stories:

I think this is just a beautiful story! Miss Rumphius makes a promise to herself when she is young that she will one day visit faraway lands, live by the shore and do something to make the world more beautiful. She plants seeds and has a whole land of lupines grow.

I asked my students to write about what they will do when they grow up to make the world more beautiful. I LOVED some of the answers they came up with:

Just look at this illustration. He's going to give people what they wish for in packages.

I never thought about the fact that by reading kids' stories I am making the world more beautiful! <3 nbsp="" p="">