¡El Festival Verde!
“¡Es una rima! ¡Es una rima!” cheered students in the Spanish Pre-K 4 class. The excitement for lyrical poetry and literary imagination sounded through the first floor hallways as students embarked on a journey of rhymes and exploration during Dr. Seuss’ birthday week.
Students were inspired by reading a Dr. Seuss favorite, the famous Green Eggs and Ham. Many of us remember the story: Guy-Am-I is hesitant about trying green eggs and initially declines Sam-I-Am’s request to try them. By the end of the story, the Guy changes his mind and realizes that he likes them after all.
After reading this book, Spanish Pre-K 4 Head Teacher Leticia Gonzalez posed the question to her Pre-K 4 class, “Would you take the risk and try green eggs?”
Many students were curious and one student asked, “What if we could cook the eggs?”
With the green eggs in mind, students decided on using eggs to bake a green cake and created a list of other green ingredients to add to their growing celebration. They added cucumbers, avocados, grapes, and more green foods to their shopping list. The celebration became known as…
¡El Festival Verde!
Next, the class ventured into the neighborhood for their grocery shopping adventure.
The class decided that this was an experiment that they would like to pursue. The idea of cooking green eggs and the execution of the project was directed by the Preschool students themselves, with their teachers Leticia and Rebeca supporting their creativity and curiosity throughout the the process. The project involved many layers of learning through inquiry, experimentation, collaboration, and cooperation.
Then, students worked together to measure ingredients and bake their cake.
While the cake was in the oven, the class sampled several different green foods.
Students were all very excited to taste their masterfully baked creations – fresh from the oven!
Spanish Pre-K Head Teacher Leticia Gonzalez shared with us that as risk-takers, sometimes we don’t always like it, but trying new things and taking the chance to explore and share our discoveries with our friends is what learning is all about! Through El Festival Verde, students learned teamwork and critical thinking skills. Students developed more of an open mind, a deeper understanding of collaboration, and a greater excitement for literacy and learning.