Working with real items helps foster a sense of understanding in young learners.

To the preschool mind, learning must occur in three dimensions if it is to be effective.

Rather than showing a picture of something to a young child, it helps to actually have them interact with the item.

This happens because their little brains think in such concrete terms.

For this activity, we used cucumbers to represent the Prickly Pear Cactus.

Using different manipulatives, students decorated their cacti alongside their friends!