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Stadium kindergartners learn lessons on teamwork
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Neighbors | Sarah Foor .Lilliana Naughton was responsible for giving her group's Play-doh mixture a good stir during the Dec. 2 event.
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Neighbors | Sarah Foor .MetroParks Farm agricultural facilities manager Brenda Markley visited Stadium Drive Elementary on Dec. 2 to teach kindergartners about "The Little Red Hen." In the tale, the hen grows, harvests, grinds, and makes bread from a crop of wheat she grows. Markley brought a real stalk of wheat from MetroParks Farm and pointed out the plant's roots, stem, and head to teach the students more about the grain.
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Neighbors | Sarah Foor .Markley taught the kindergartners about the importance of teamwork by having each student be responsible for one of the ingredients in a batch of Play-doh. Kindergartner MacKenzie Kelso carefully added her batch of flour to a bowl during the Dec. 2 event.
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Neighbors | Sarah Foor .After the Play-doh mixtures were properly combined, it was time to play. Angelo Marcella decided to roll out a snake with his batch of Play-doh on Dec. 2.
By SARAH FOOR
The famous tale of “The Little Red Hen” champions work ethic and self-reliance as the namesake character of the tale plants and tends to wheat, grinds it to flour and makes dough with no help from her friends until a warm loaf of bread is ready to be eaten.
MetroParks Farm agricultural facilities manager Brenda Markley visited Stadium Drive on Dec. 2 to use the story of “The Little Red Hen” to teach the moral message as well as educate the school’s kindergartners about wheat-growing on modern farms.
Markley shared the tale of the hen and then showed the students stalks of real wheat and pointed out the root, stem and head of the plant. She explained how combines harvest wheat on large farms throughout the world.
“When you grind wheat, it becomes flour. If you like sandwiches, macaroni, cakes, cookies, or pancakes, you are probably thankful for flour because they are a really important part of those foods,” explained Markley.
Markley aimed to teach the kindergartners to be different than the Little Red Hen’s friends by using teamwork. The students divided into groups and each student had an important role to play in making a batch of Play-doh.
Once the ingredients of salt, water, oil, Kool-aid and flour were properly mixed, the kindergartners were free to smash, stretch and roll their Play-doh.
Kindergarten teacher Tami Nero appreciated the Dec. 2 program.
“It’s a great lesson because it’s highly educational, but the kids still have so much fun with it,” Nero said.