The students will learn creative ways in which art and food connects to different cultures within their communities.

The students watched the All About Corn! Corn is not so "Corny" (video below on the right hand side) to get an understanding on what corn is, how it's made, what it is in, and an overview of the impact corn has in the society we live in. From there the students created their own popcorn stories based off statements that resonate with them and colored in the popcorn 🍿 to reflect their response (image below on your left).  Through this process we learned a bit more about the students personality and ideas of projects we wanted them to work on. 

Knowledge was entangled through stories and videos shared about corn being used in different cultures with the students using every part of the corn to make art. For example, the Corn Mosaics we used images of plants, instruments, and storytelling that represents the Mexican culture and had the students use different color corn kernels to fill in the image. 

Our students referenced the African-American/African, Mexican, and Native American cultures. They watched videos of how corn is used in these cultures such as how they are prepared and the foods where corn is present. From there Ms. Shenequa and Ms. Pineda did various activities with the students that bridged the gap of what they learned from these cultures to the works they produced (which you can see examples above). The biggest change from last year to this year's CAPE project was the age group and working with food. As first graders, we had to approach this project using structured inquiry. Ms. Shenequa and Ms. Pineda engaged the whole class through the inquiry of culture and corn. 

Ms. Shenequa learned that the students enjoyed watching the video's and immediately making something with their hands after. She learned that the students thought it was cool that they're making art using parts of the corn that they can eat as a snack or a part of a meal. Visually having something done for the students to look at was great because they had something to aspire to do and excite them to want to learn how to make. Lastly, having Ms. Pineda present to speak and engage with the students helped a great deal with the process of making. 

Ms. Pineda learned that inquiry can happen at all ages. Younger students have many questions and as educators we have to guide them in their inquiry to find the answers to their questions. She continues to learn that art is so important to student learning. Art can be incorporated into every aspect of learning and seeing their joy and pride when they have created a piece of art is great to see. Ms. Pineda learned that it is always important to have a contingency plan. Sometimes activities may not go as planned, and it is always key to have a back up plan. She continued to learn that planning is also important. Ms. Shenequa and Ms. Pineda were in constant communication, always planning to make sure that they had everything that was needed for their weekly classes.