Grocery Shopping with a Twist! [Arts Explorer #7]

        When I first step foot into a grocery market, the first section that I am most drawn to is the fresh fruit. Fruit is part of my daily diet (which should be for all of us) and is what I usally choose to snack on over junk food. They're sweet (for the most part) and  healthy!

         I LOVE FRUITS - Watermelon, Kiwi, Blueberry, Strawberry, Raspberry, Cherry, Mango, Orange, Grape, Peach, Plum, Pineapple, Dragon fruit, Pear, Star fruit, Pomegranate, Apple, Honeydew melon, Cantaloupe - I love them all! (Except Durian - The smell of it makes me run the other way...) Fruits can take many form; it can be made into fruit juices, smoothies, fruit salad, and fruit preserves - just to name a few. Fruits is a very broad category, but each kind of fruit come in different colors, shapes, textures, sizes and varieties. Even within one single type of fruit come various shapes and sizes since no two fruit is exactly the same. And when I say variety, I mean that one type of fruit can have many variations. For instance, a watermelon can have red or yellow flesh, range in sizes and come with or without seeds, kiwi's can be further categorized into golden kiwi, or green kiwi (which by the way for those of you who don't know - looks and tastes very different), and grapes can be green, red, or black, and again, with or without seeds.

Different shapes & sizes of watermelon grown in Japan.
Photo taken on a trip to Hong Kong in 2009.

    When you look in the fruit section of a grocery store, the first thing you will probably notice is the range of colors - from red, orange, yellow green, blue, to purple (pretty much all the colors of the rainbow!)
I have chosen to sketch a starfruit, dragonfruit, and pear to emphasize some of the various shapes of fruits. It's a little difficult to describe each of their shapes, but from my drawings you can tell that they're all very unique. These fruits are all non-geometrical. However, when you cut the starfruit open, it produces the shape of a star, thus making it a geometrical shape. As I mentioned, fruits come in a range of shapes. The next time you go grocery shopping take a look and see for yourself!

      

There's so much to look at in a grocery store. There are so many different shape, sizes, colors, textures, and FOOD! And come one, who doesn't like food? This can be an opportunity to stir up a discussion or conversation with children about these different elements. You can even play a game of eye spy with them while strolling down each and every aisle. Ultimately, it promotes the use of langauge.

Art Word of the Week

Shape [sheyp]

According to Schirrmacher & Fox (2009), shape refers to the outside form of an object. It may be characterized as: simple or complex, circular or angular, geometrical (circle, square, rectangle or triangle) or nongeometrical (irregular, free-form), big and large, or small and little, solid, heavy, massive; or open, light, hard or soft, symmetrical or asymmetrical (p.140).

Schirrmacher, R., & Fox, J. E. (2009). Art & creative development for young children (6th ed.). Clifton Park, NY: Thomson/Delmar Learning.