"Mine's a snake coming out of a shell," said James holding up his fork-tongued gourd creation.
Emma saw Cinderella’s ballgown in her gourd, so she painted it pink and added Cinderella’s helpful mice crew to her story box. Hailey put her gourd sunbathing on a beach wearing sunglasses under an umbrella. From aliens to hot air balloons, elephants to cupcakes and fairy houses, students let their imaginations soar as they turned their gourds into anything but just a gourd.
“I like how you could be creative about it and make it anything you wanted to,” said KyliJo whose round, fat gourd turned into a pink and purple octopus with googly eyes.
Rose used real zinnias, morning glory vines and greenery to create a fairy purse and Grace painted her gourd glittery pink to shine as a pretty fairy house.
“It made me use my imagination,” said Zoey who painted her gourd red and white like a bowling pin.
Ben admits he sometimes gets bored so when he saw his gourd it reminded him of food - specifically a drumstick. He painted the gourd brown and placed it in a striped red and white box labeled “Kentucky Fried Chicken.” This was something different to do and something where I could use my imagination,” he said.
But the assignment was more than just using their imagination. Students were able to take their gourds home and enlist help from family members as a family project if they wanted to. The second part of the assignment was a writing portion. Each student had to write a “recipe” for how they transformed their gourd.
“It had to be very exact so that someone could read it and follow the instructions to make their own,” said Grace.
Isaac said he liked his UFO gourd. He covered the gourd with aluminum foil, made some legs for it to stand on and even a laser light pointing down in destruction. “I just thought it looked like the shape of a UFO so that’s what I made.”
Clarabelle let her imagination soar as she created a colorful hot air balloon sailing into a bright blue sky. “It was very fun to do this. I like using my imagination and being creative.”