“We could share our bags with our families.  We could even share it with your family, Ms.Cushner!”

As friends began learning about markets in their classrooms, we realized that we needed reusable bags for our school garden market! We began by observing a variety of bags and noticed that most had words, images or both.  Friends also shared with each other where their families had used reusable bags before and what they carried in them.

Kourtney: You could put snacks and food in them.  I do that to go to my grandmas house.

Dayana: You could put things in them to go on vacation.

Declan: I think that bag says “strawberries are sour.”  Or “strawberries grow.”  They put pictures of strawberries so I think the words are about strawberries, too.

Elijah: We should put our names on them.   It could say “Elijah is the best” with no pictures, just colors.  And rainbows.

Africa Grace: We use bags to bring things home from the store or to someone else who needs them.

Cesar: That bag has recycle symbols.  The recycle symbols are the leaves on the tree!

Isaac: Our bags could say that strawberries are healthy, and they’re red.  And that I think hyenas like to eat them.

Theo: A recycling tree!  I think the words say “I recycled your trash into a bag.”

Mina: Sometimes my family uses them to carry a little baby potty for my sister.

Brandon: If you’re going to the park, you could put food and toys inside.

Naila: That bag is from Whole Foods!

Elizabeth: You could put groceries in it.  You could put junk in it and give it to someone to build a monster truck with.

Mason: You could put a lot of books in it.  Or a small lamp.

Kendul: I went to Walmart to get a Shimmer and Shine doll and they gave me a bag like that and it says “Walmart.”

Connor: I want my bag to say “when you go to the strawberry field, you don’t want to pick the rotten ones, you want to pick the good ones to take home.”

Kendul: But we learned a lot about peppers.  It could say “let peppers grow… let the sun let them get juicy.”

Luca: I use those to get food and to give presents to people.  And to carry my beach stuff.

Mariyah: I use bags for putting my clothes in the bag to take to my auntie’s house.  My brother takes soccer stuff in bags.  And you can use it for carrying lasagna stuff.

Sammy: I think the bag could say “you can kiss your family and you can play and go out somewhere with your family… you could go on a field trip with your cat.”

Julian: We know a lot about strawberries.  It could say “you can plant them but you can’t eat them when they’re green.”

Daniela: Bears eat tomatoes, so do persons.  We should tell people that.

Mateo: My mom always tells me to eat my tomatoes.  I want the bag to say that!

Julian: We need to tell people about daffodils.  Let’s say “daffodil colors are not just yellow, they could be white or orange.”

Uhura: I put toys in them.  You can carry them to a far away place if it’s too heavy.

Nazeer: We could share our bags with our families.  We could even share it with your family, Ms.Cushner!

Scotland: Let’s tell them that some peppers are spicy and some aren’t!

Asa: If you want to carry heavy things, it’s a good thing to use!

Ali: My grandma has a bag like that.  It’s orange and green.

Amie: My dad got a bag from a drawer in the kitchen and put my swimming suit in it!

Jax: We could say “we’re tomato experts… when tomatoes turn brown, don’t eat them and that tomato seeds grow in the plants!”

Joelle: We can write “no picking flowers or they will die and the roots won’t grow again.”

Abbie: Strawberries have seeds and they have a stem.  And a little flower that’s white.

Irvina: I want to tell families that tomatoes grow on vines.  They don’t grow on trees.

Phew! Once we began brainstorming about our bags, we decided it was best to share information about the plants in our courtyard garden that each class became “experts” on.  Children came up with slogans and then voted on their two favorites at Morning Meeting!

Elijah: Peppers grow on vines.  They all start green but when they grow they turn to different colors.  They can grow upside down.

Africa Grace: We made strawberry jam.  It’s good on crackers.

Isaac: Strawberry jam is kind of delicious and kind of not.

Theo: Ketchups made from tomatoes.

Leba: Daffodils don’t move.  They’re not animals.

Mina: You can make sauce with tomatoes.

Kate: Peppers look like teeth.

Luca: Strawberries have 102 seeds on them.

Mateo: It’s OK to eat the tomato seeds.  Nothing bad will happen.

Briana: Some strawberry seeds are yellow and some are black.

Amie: Tomato seeds look like raindrops.

Friends began doing observational drawings of tomatoes, strawberries, peppers or daffodils to add to our garden market bags.




Mason: I want to try to draw this daffodil.  It’ll be hard for me.

Julian: Count the petals so you know how many to draw.

Nazeer: I see a little curve, a little circle and another curve.  There’s a down line next to it.

Joelle: I have a really challenging one.  There are so many daffodils to draw!  It’s like I’m at work and I have to focus really hard.

Abbie: I’m adding a flower because I see a flower in the picture.




After children voted in classrooms, we began writing the words to accompany the pictures on the bags.  Friends chose if they wanted to write in their regular handwriting, or if they wanted to try writing with fancy letters.



Connor: I only have to write three letters and the “s” is so easy.

Luca: I gave the “r” a little hat.  That’s silly.

Montre: Fancy letters are like if you want to give a letter a mustache.

Amie: I put sleeves on the “L” and that’s silly and fancy.  And I turned the “S” into a bear.  I put ears.

Alina: I made ponytails on my letters.

Kaleb: I turned my letter into a tomato head!  And I made the “M” in tomato into a rainbow.




Next, we transferred our text and images onto a piece of styrofoam to use as a stamp!  Friends mixed ink, rolled it onto the styrofoam stamp and pressed it onto their market bags.  We hope you enjoy using them to shop with at the PK Garden Market on 5/17 from 9-10 am!


Declan: Ink feels soooooo sticky!

Kourtney: Wow… it’s on the bag!

Mina: It’s kind of hard to roll ink but when you roll it, it turns smooth.

Naila: Oh, I think I know… it’s gonna stamp on the bag!

Aaron: Ink is so messy.  But it’s so good.  I’m working really hard on it.  That is a big, big, big stamp.





Kendul: Roll, roll, roll… roll the ink!

Luca: I can’t wait to take the bag home after the showcase to use at REAL markets!

Katherine: The ink gets very scratchy.

Gerson: The stamp is getting so covered.  It’s like a bulldozer.

Julian: I know it’s going to go on the bag.  It looks beautiful!




Adele: I saw someone paint a wall with a rolling tool like that.

Geo: My mommy… she gonna like this!

Asa: Rolling the ink sounds like a lawn mower.

Briana: It’s hard to make the ink flat.  It’s easy to make it have lines.

Amie: It sounds like a cat is walking around and scratching with his claws!





Additional market bags, tea towels and seed balls will be for sale at the PK Garden Market tomorrow (5/17) between 9-10! See you there!


“Is it a bag of snowballs?”

By this point in the year, all children in Pre-K have had an experience working with clay!  It is one of my favorite materials to work with and I always love introducing it to children.  We began by examining clay in a plastic bag… friends felt it, poked it and attempted to lift it.  There’s always a sense of mystery around it, and we brainstorm what we think is in the bag.


Belen: It feels like softy.

Amal: I think it’s a ball that’s pretty.

Bennett: It feels cold.  Like snow or ice.

Cory: Is it a bag of yarn that can roll around the school?  It’s heavy, so that doesn’t make sense.  I don’t know what it is!

Naomi: Is it a bag of snowballs?

Victor: It sticky.



Once friends learned that it was clay, they began to work on their clay sculptures!  We had some different tools available… rollers and hammers for making it flat, clay scissors for cutting, utensils for mark making, etc.  Many children chose to work with friends and created dinosaurs and monsters, while others pretended they were chefs in the kitchen.



Christian: It’s hard to peel plastic off the clay.  It’s making my hands grey!  Hey, you can use the roller to make it flat like a sandwich.  Who wants a krabby patty?

Alli: That tool looks like that thing you use to flip with when you’re cooking.



Elijah: I watched Master Chef Ramsey and he tells people to cook a lot and he uses tools that look like that.  I’m gonna pretend I’m on Master Chef Junior and make a duck.  I’m gonna make the duck feet but I have to cut off the nails before you pretend to eat it.

Siah: I made a dinosaur.  He’s a t-rex, but I forgot to make his teeth.  I can just add them now!



“Vrooooom, it made blue!”

Before art groups switched this week, Friday (Blue) groups had been trying different painting techniques with a variety of materials.  Last week, friends came into the Studio to find a basket of toy cars and trays of paint.  We set up some large pieces of paper and began experimenting with rolling the cars through paint and seeing what types of marks the wheels made.




Morgin: Look what’s happening… it’s turning into a rainbow.

Marley: Start your engines… we’re racing!

Gerlin: Vrooooom, it made blue!

Moses: There’s the tracks.  The paint shows the tracks.

After friends were finished rolling the cars through paint, they had to take them to the car wash!  We used a bucket of soapy water as our makeshift carwash and children scrubbed the cars clean when they were all finished.  I think friends enjoyed this just as much as they liked getting the cars dirty!



Morgin: My cars dirty.  Got to get it clean.  Wash the car and got it clean.  Oh… bubbles!

Sasha: We’re getting our cars clean!  My car can talk… it says, “I’m at a tea party with bubbles.”  My car is filthy.

Moses: Put them in the carwash?  That’s funny. Ms.Cushner.

Amberly: Clean at carwash.