An Auesome Strawberry Experience
Imagine indulging in creamy strawberry mousse and enjoying some delectable strawberry jam paired with scones or freshly baked bread. What ingredients come to mind when you think about your favorite fruit preserves and desserts? Perhaps fresh strawberries, sugar, and lemon juice for the jam, or gelatin and whipping cream for the mousse. As we discover and try new fruit dessert recipes, how often do we think about the process in which those fruits are harvested and brought to our supermarkets and neighborhood stores?
When we decided to teach our Auesomers about strawberries and the life cycle of plants, we thought about fun and interactive ways to enhance their learning experience by integrating our lessons and providing a wide range of hands-on, experiential learning activities.
Integration can be done by finding conceptual links between learning areas and ensuring that our Auesomers are able to develop skills and knowledge within each area through sequenced learning experiences. By integrating our lesson on strawberries across subjects, we provided our Auesomers with a holistic way of learning and gave them opportunities to deepen their understanding of the topic while at the same time increasing their level of motivation and engagement.
We began our themed lesson on strawberries with story-telling activities where our Auesomers read and discussed The Tiny Seed. This delightful book tells the story of a little seed's hazardous journey across mountains, deserts and seas while facing many dangers along the way, then finally settling into the ground and eventually growing into a new flower. This book provided an excellent foundation for our Auesomers to learn about the life cycle of flowering plants.
Our Auesomers also learned how strawberries are grown as they discussed The First Strawberry. With its repetitive phrases, high-frequency words, and colorful illustrations, this story was a wonderful learning resource for our language arts lessons. This reading activity was supplemented by educational videos, as well as engaging worksheets for our Auesomers to practice sequencing. As an important reading comprehension strategy, particularly for narrative texts, sequencing improves the ability to recall key details and events and put them in the order in which they happen.
We incorporated our topic on strawberries into our Visual Arts sessions where our Auesomers learned how to paint this nutritious fruit. As they dotted their strawberries with ink, they discovered that, in contrast to other fruits, strawberries have seeds on the outside. Art continuous to be a highly beneficial platform that facilitates the development of creativity, self-expression, and boosts our imagination. Furthermore, drawing assists in improving hand-eye coordination, encourages visual analysis, and builds confidence. Our Auesomers were also able to practice social skills such as turn-taking and respecting differences in their output in a natural and enjoyable setting.
In order to further deepen their knowledge about strawberries and learn more about where and how they are grown, our Auesomers visited a strawberry farm located in the outskirts of Beijing. As soon as they arrived, they were each given a basket and taught which strawberries were ready to be harvested. Allowing them to pick their own fruits is the finest way to take them closer to nature and cultivate a greater sense of appreciation for the food that they consume. Our Auesomers had never been to a strawberry farm before or had the opportunity to eat freshly picked strawberries. This was a truly unforgettable field trip for our Auesomers. They left the strawberry farm with wonderful memories and a basket full of fresh strawberries that they took home to share with their families.
At Auesome Place, we value field trips and excursions because we believe that they enhance and enrich our curriculum, broaden the educational experience, and heighten our Auesomers’ awareness of the community. Immersing them into new environments can improve their observation skills and solidify what they have previously learned.
Strawberries in Recipe
What better way to cap off our themed topic on strawberries than by using some of the freshly picked strawberries from the farm to make delicious jam and strawberry mousse.
These culinary activities offered a variety of tasks that helped develop our Auesomers’ cognitive and life skills. They were able to expand their vocabulary as they reviewed the recipes, identified the ingredients and the necessary kitchen tools and appliances used to make the jam and mousse, and followed each step in the food preparation process. Different cooking techniques, such as measuring ingredients, slicing, mashing, and whisking, enhanced their motor skills, strength, and control. Our Auesomers thoroughly enjoyed these multisensory experiences. They have a stronger sense of pride and accomplishment when they are able to finish their tasks either individually or when they collaborate with their peers.
When we integrate topics across learning areas and bring all of these experiences together, our activities become mutually reinforcing and our Auesomers are able to use their knowledge in different settings. Through our hands-on and experiential learning activities, our Auesomers have improved their creativity and confidence, broadened their horizons, and now they always look forward to their next Auesome experience.
