When I shared the above picture on social media, another teacher suggested we explore the paintings of Henri Rousseau as his jungle paintings are known to have 22 shades of green.
So I found this book, The Fantastic Jungles of Henri Rousseau by Michelle Markel, at the library and the children were very interested in his life and work. In addition to having many shades of green in the illustrations, the book also carried a great message about believing in yourself and not giving up!
When they were finished, each child gave a name to one shade of green in their painting and shared it with the class. I thought this might be difficult for some, but it wasn’t at all and they came up with some great names for green that included words such as jungle, grass, leaf, mint, parrot, and forest.
As spring inched closer, we talked about the “greening of the Earth” and I invited the children to be on the lookout for this transformation. We read Mud by Mary Lyn Ray which beautifully illustrated the change from frozen ground to spring green.
I thought we might use our shades of green paintings to create leaves, grass, etc. for a spring mural as we explored and anticipated signs of spring. However, the children had a different idea! They didn’t want to cut their paintings so I rounded up various shades of green construction and copy paper and they used that instead (stay tuned to find out how we did use the paintings!).
And Miss Fox’s Class Goes Green by Eileen Spinelli:
We took action by doing a “trash to treasure” project where the children learned how they could reuse items by transforming them into something new. Many brought in boxes they had made into ramps, doll beds, or keepsake boxes.
Some even began to write poems about taking care of the Earth during writing workshop.
At this point in our study, the Earth was truly green and we headed outdoors with our paint strips to see if we could find some of the different shades in nature.
With about 5 weeks left to go in the school year, there are still more possibilities for this project! The plant kit just arrived from the science center along with opportunities to test our “green thumbs,” explore the greenhouse effect, and discover what it means to eat “green.” I’ll keep you posted!
This post contains affiliate links. Roots & Wings is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
Deborah Lis says
[email protected]
I love love this idea!!! I think I’m going to use some of your ideas!!! Just wanted to thank you.
Thanks!
Deb
Jackie says
You are so welcome!