The main objectives of this activity were:
1. Work on abstraction by creating humanoid portraits using different objects such as fruits.
2. Bring knowledge of general culture by showing the work of a painter (here Arcimboldo)
3. Let the child make a work on this theme for fun while learning
In short, I drew, painted and cut fruits out of cardboard. Two larger than the others to make the face. The child is free to use the different fruits at his disposal to compose the face of his character.
Details (materials and step-by-step) are presented here.
Many other activities can be derived using thé same set of fruits.
1. Emotions game: the child can make a happy, angry or sad character. By choosing the fruits he will use (color, shape), he will be able to model characters with different emotions.
2. Color game: the diversity of fruits is great for creating games with children. This is particularly useful for working on colors with younger children. Several variations depending on the age of the child:
- "Please give me a yellow fruit"
- "Can you group the fruits according to their color?"
- "Can you put all the yellow fruits in this basket?"
3. Association game: Help to enrich children's vocabulary. The youngest do not know all the names of the fruits, only the fruits that they like or consume regularly. We can therefore create a game by asking the child:
"Today I would very much like to eat a pear, do you have any?"
The child finds it and gives it to you so we continue with another fruit,
"I'm still hungry, do you have any apricots?"
The child is wrong
"It's an orange fruit, it's smaller than an orange or a peach, etc..."
By the description the child will find the fruit and will more easily remember these characteristics for the next time you ask him for apricots
For older children, who are beginning to read, we can do the association between the word and the fruit. I underlined the complex sounds on the labels in order to facilitate the reading
4. Market game: To learn to count, it's really a great game. On a pièce of paper or a whiteboard, I draw each fruit and associated a price with it (example: the watermelon costs 3 coins, the cherry costs 5 coins, the apricot costs 2 coins).
We thus start the market:
"Hello dear seller, I would like 2 apricots, 1 watermelon and 1 cherry please?"
The child prepares the basket and counts how much you have to give him in exchange
"12 pieces. Want something else?"
The game continues as long as the child wants.
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