Due to the stormy nature of the weather, I asked my classes if I could teach indoors. I proceeded to visit each class in their respective rooms. My lesson plan for the week consisted of making seed art and, at Twentieth Street specifically, tasting bok choy!
I started my lesson by letting them know that I really wanted to get to both parts, but in order to do so I would need the students’ help. I needed them to cooperate and encourage their friends to cooperate so we could do everything we wanted to.
For the seed art section, I showed them step-by-step how to draw a shape, how to apply glue to the shape, and how to apply seeds to the glue so that they stuck. Some of them had a hard time with this activity because they wanted their own shapes to be perfect, but I encouraged them to be patient with themselves. I explained to them that art isn’t about being perfect, but rather it’s an opportunity to express yourself! They seemed to keep this approach in mind as they continued to draw. I let them know that after they were done with their seed art they could also color and draw around the seed art to provide context or just make it look pretty. A lot of the students in this class finished fairly quickly. There are a lot of go-getters at 20th St Elementary!
Finally, for our tasting activity, I had brought a several stalks on bok choy with me. I sliced the stalks in front of the class and explained that these stalks were from another school that had an abundance of it. I also told them that I had to harvest a lot of bok choy very quickly because some of them were starting to bolt, meaning we couldn’t eat it anymore. I instructed the students not to eat the samples I was passing out until everyone had one so we could try it together. Overall, most of the students liked it. There were a few who said they didn’t like the taste because they’d never had bok choy before, which was understandable. The students seemed to really enjoy the tasting activity and some even asked for seconds!