The Avocado Seed

The tiniest of moments happened today and I almost missed it. I was waving goodbye and I’ll see you next time when I noticed the small commotion. The children were sitting in their seats for lunch while their chili was being served. Ryan, the wonderful cook, provided all the necessary toppings: sour cream, shredded cheese and some whole avocado to slice up. Once the avocado was sliced open the children were excited to see the pit, they called it the ‘avocado seed’. It was passed around, so each child had a chance to look at it and observe its special markings. How easy it would have been to just throw it in the food waste bin, or even just the garbage, but the children insisted on taking a closer look. In preschool 1, “Fooding and Foraging”, we are thinking about our forest walks, about food waste and compost and how we can slow down, notice and showcase our thinking through the use of watercolours. Since the avocado seed was such an interesting artifact, we decided to save it in the jar to observe more closely next time we have our watercolours out. These are the tiny moments that sometimes pass us by; we don’t notice how interesting something as forgettable as an avocado pit can be. We forget how the simplicity of noticing something mundane can open up whole new ways of thinking. I wonder what happens next with the avocado seed and where will this wondering take us?

Noticing the internal dimensions of a regular food item (in this case, an avocado) and the hidden world within.