Big Buddies Five Little Pumpkins

During our last big buddy visit we focused on the poem

Five Little Pumpkins.

A few of our big buddies acted out the poem for a very attentive audience.

Then each pair received a little baggie with 5 pumpkins, a gate and the words to the poem.

 

They counted the pumpkins and retold the poem together.

This big buddy is trying to make a connection with his little buddy who

is a bit hesitant when she meets someone new.

But his silliness drew her in and she copied him by covering mom's eyes

with the pumpkins.

The children then played with equipment that had been set up around the gym.

I noticed that this was a time that many of the grown ups felt comfortable

to step back and let their child connect with the big buddy alone.

This provided lots of opportunity for the buddies to learn more about each other

and what they can do.

Here is an another example of a big buddy gaining their little buddies attention and interest.

She patiently waited, with her hands out to catch, while the little buddy took his

time to throw the ball.

We finished with two of our regular songs.

Ring around the rosie, a pocketful of posies,

husha, husha we all fall down.

Fishes in the ocean, fishes in the sea

We all jump up when we count to three.

And Icky Sticky Bubble Gum.

I see delight and trust being expressed in these pictures.

Thank you to Ms Smith for taking these wonderful photos.

A New Dark Space

I've been struggling with our light table.

Our room is big, with high ceilings and bright overhead lights.

They are bright even when there are only a third of them on.

So last week I created a 'dark room'.

I used an old awning frame and draped lots of sheets over top.

Inside the children found this jack o'lantern totem

the light table and another table with a small box with lights.

The lighted box was a favourite.

The children used the Halloween characters to create stories and

we added props each day and the stories continued.

The light table works great now.

The children were fascinated with the lights from the jack o'lanterns.

The 'dark room' has turned in to a wonderful fort.

One parent commented today that she found it very calming.

Happy Halloween

Here are a few highlights from our morning.

Shaving cream and little pumpkins.

Soft, smooth, slippery.

A old favourite, hammering golf tees into a pumpkin.

This year's favourite was this memory game.

 

Under each half cup was a little finger puppet.

They kept looking till they found the matching pair.

Lots of noises were made for each of the characters.

Count the pumpkin seeds.

Lentils, black beans and tiny insects to scoop.

At the end of our morning we joined the school for a Pumpkin Run.

We teamed up with our big buddies.

Centres were set up around the school yard and the groups had to run

one to another once they finished.

This centre they had to recite the poem

Five Little Pumpkins.

They played Over and Under by passing a pumpkin from person to person.

The first person passing it over their head then the next person

passing it under their legs.

We had to transfer all the 'pumpkins' (basketballs) from one bin

down the line to the other bin.

Like a fire brigade.

And the last one we did was to toss rings around the witches' hats.