I know this story reported on by the eastsider web site, is a bit Los Angeles centric but the fact that a gas station owner has decorated his station so beautifully with mosaic art needs to be shared. Let’s encourage more of this kind of thinking. There are mermaids and other sea life adorning the United Gas Station in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. Since we’re about to have a vote about lifting the mural ban at the City Council tomorrow, it’s nice that the beautification of businesses is already in full motion. The owner of this station is known for decorating his stations but I have to say, having driven by this place as it was being adorned, I am certainly looking forward to buying gas there as well as going inside to get the necessary refreshments. Check it out if you’re in the Echo Park area.
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Peach Themed Learning Activities
August is National Peach Month, and it’s the perfect time to learn about, learn with and eat peaches!
According the Utah State University’s Extension Service, peaches originated in China more than 8,000 years ago. There are more than 2,000 species, and they are good sources of vitamins A, C and E. Their fuzzy hair is known as trichomes, which helps protect the peaches against insects and retains moisture. Pretty sweet!
Learn about the life cycle of a peach with this printable pack from Every Star is Different. (Free to subscribers)
Twisty Noodle has a lot of great peach-themed worksheets including a tracing and coloring page, a dot to dot coloring page, do a dot page and practice writing the word peach. You can also learn to draw a peach from Hello Artsy and find more fruit coloring pages, including peaches, at Little Bee Family.
Kids of a certain age will want to read James and the Giant Peach (and/or watch the movie) and you can do activities related to the book for your peach unit study as well.
Simple Living Creative Learning has a James and the Giant Peach printable pack that includes 153 pages of math, literacy, pattern recognition, sorting and tons more (this isn’t free but it’s a great resource for a kid who loves this book).
Where the Magic Happens Teaching has another paid printable set of activities for doing James and the Giant Peach in the classroom, including a banner, quotes, poetry sheets, a STEM activity, lapbook and more.
Peanut Butter Fish Lessons has a good post about reading James and the Giant Peach with kids and using it to make predictions, track descriptive and figurative language and fun ideas for activities related to different chapters of the book. I love how it pulls in a lot of different kinds of synthesizing what you’ve read, from writing a news report to making a poster or acting out a scene.
And if you need a little sensory activity after all that, make some peach-scented playdough with this recipe from Laughing Kids Learn.
12 Perfectly Peach Recipes [Edible Crafts]
Healthy Halloween Dessert: Ghost Peaches [Edible Crafts]