teaching | Ghostwritermummy

parenting, pre-schoolers, teaching

Inspiring the imagination with a Dragon Fruit

This week a Dragon Fruit caught my eye and I thought it would be a good opportunity to try something new with the children. I remember taking unusual or different foods into school for my year ones to try, and decided it would be nice to do the same at home too. The pre-schooler wasn’t with me so he didn’t know about the Dragon Fruit, and didn’t see it until the next morning. When he did see it, we had such a wonderful conversation that I decided to try and recreate it for a short film. Of course, second time around it was nowhere near as fantastic, but this is kind of how it went: Luka: what’s that? Is it a pineapple? Me: No, it’s a Dragon Fruit. Luka: Do we eat it? Me: Yes, we can eat it. Luka: what happens when we eat it? Do we turn into dragons? Me: Ooh, I don’t know! Luka: I will turn into a medium dragon with green fire and you will turn into a big dragon with pink fire… Eva will be medium but bigger and she will have red fire. Bella will be tiny and Daddy will be enormous! Me: will we be scary dragons? Luka: no, we’re nice dragons. But we might be angry if someone tries to steal our chocolate eggs! And Daddy will put fire all over the naughty people and they will cry. Me: That sounds scary! Luka: it’s not scary! I will look after you! And on it went. The preschooler’s imagination was on fire! We decided to grab the moment and cut open the Dragon Fruit. Of course, we popped it (on a plate) into the Tuff Spot and first of all talked about: How it looked- bright pink, like a pineapple How it felt- squashy, smooth, soft Next, we cut the Dragon Fruit in half and were surprised to see that it was spotty inside. The Big One knew they were seeds and the pre-schooler used his finger tip to feel the bumpy seeds. We then: Had a smell, and I decided that it smelt of runner beans! The children thought it smelled of nothing… Had a taste… carefully! The Big One went first and said it was like cucumber. I went next and concluded that it really tasted of nothing! The pre-schooler, satisfied that we weren’t dragons (yet!) then had a taste and said it was yummy! We then used our fingers to peel the skin away from the fruit and talked about how it felt and how different the colour of the skin was against the white of the fruit. Then the pre-schooler asked to do some dragon painting! This was a first, since the pre-schooler rarely asks to paint and often has little inspiration. I drew a dragon on some paper and the pre-schooler helped me to mix some green paint for the body. We used a sponge to make a textured dragon body and The big One decided to work on the flames. Unfortunately, this was all short lived as the pre-schooler quickly moved on to using a toy car to paint instead, and then asked to go and play with his cars, so we agreed to finish the dragon another time. Days later and the pre-schooler is still talking about the Dragon Fruit and asking if we can have some more so that we can turn into dragons again. This was such a perfect opportunity for imaginative play and the pre-schooler was so inspired! Next time, I would extend this by perhaps using dragon puppets to act out his story, or for him to play with, using key words to extend his already impressive vocabulary.

reviews, teaching

Twinkl: a review

twinkl

teaching

Inspiring writing: dinosaurs

dinosaur1

teaching

How to make a tree for your classroom

thinking tree1

Uncategorized

Get real Gove!

get real gove

Uncategorized

A diagnosis and a dilemma…

Page 1 of 212