The previous week it looked as if the kids were interested in creating a pizzeria in their classroom, however when the teachers looked into going to visit "Figs", the pizza restaurant, it wasn't open during the time the class wanted to go see it. Instead they went over to a local coffee shop. When the children entered they were extremely interested in the local artwork up on the walls. So, as you can see a combination of children's interests and circumstances can quickly change the plans of a project. As a teacher it is important to recognize how important it is to be flexible and approach teaching as a way to learn from the children.
It seems as thought the children are still interested in making some sort of restaurant because they have the corner still set up for that use, so the teachers and I decided to continue on loosely folding gardening in with the restaurant idea.
I have been working closely with the teachers and communicated to them that I would like to pursue the restaurant and gardening idea so I brought in fresh herbs and dried herbs. I brought in parsley, (fresh and dried), oregano (fresh and dried) and basil (fresh and dried). I had a small group with me during inquiry time.
When presenting the herbs for the activity, I had each fresh herb sitting in a cup of water with a label underneath it. I had the children smell the fresh herb interchanging it with the dried version. I asked questions such as, " which herb smells stronger to you?" "does the fresh herb smell the same or different as the dried herb?" After examining the herbs and facilitating a little conversation about all three the children got a piece of paper and crayons and drew a picture of the plants. Some children chose to draw a picture of all the fresh herbs, and some drew pictures of the tiny pieces of dried herbs.
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