pumpkin patch adventure circle

We began our new adventure circle this week, this time it's a Pumpkin Patch Adventure. All of the songs and verses are from either the Enki Education Kindergarten or 1st Grade Movement Books.

As with all of our circles, I call the kids with "Round and Round".

Then I give our introduction:

"It's October! The leaves on the trees are starting to change, there is a chill in the air, and the pumpkins in the pumpkin patch are big and ripe and round. Let's go pick out a pumpkin to turn into a jack-o-lantern! Off to the pumpkin patch we go!"

We then sing "Leaf Journey" (an opening activity which we use as a repeating verse throughout the story) and do the movements as we make our way down the hallway and back.

Back in the living room, I exclaim "Look how beautiful all the leaves are! I see reds, and yellows, and oranges," etc, letting the kids name which color leaves they see. Then we do the activity "Come Little Leaves" (an opening activity). When we are done, we recite "When Mary Goes Walking" (a mid-line activity) with the movements as we move down the hall to the bedroom.

Then, acting exhausted, I declare "Boy, it's a long way to the pumpkin patch! Oh, look, there's a farmer with his hay wagon -- perhaps he can give us a ride. He said yes! Hop aboard the wagon! Wow, these horses are great!" We then do "Horses" (a mid-line activity) down the hall and back to the bedroom, where I exclaim "oh, no, one of the horses has thrown her shoes! We need to help the farmer get them back on her before we go any further." Then we do "My Little Pony" (a mid-line activity), which J is demonstrating in the above photo.

Next I say "Alright, great job! Back on the wagon, next stop, pumpkin patch!" And we sing "Leaf Journey" again as we move back into the living room.

"We're here! Thank you for the ride, Mr. Farmer! How great -- he told us if we wait here when we're done, he'll pick us up on his way home."

"The pumpkin patch is so big! And look at all those pretty little leaves blowing across it!" Then we do "Winds of October" (a base-sense activity), followed by crawling around on the floor (working on core strength) searching for the perfect pumpkin in the patch.

"Oh look!" I exclaim, "I found a milkweed pod!" We then do "Milkweed Cradle" (a fingerplay), after which we crawl around some more and eventually each pick out a huge pumpkin (a moon bounce ball). We comment on how large and heavy our pumpkins are, and agree that we can't possible carry them all the way back to the road, so we'll have to roll them there. The kids are rolling their "pumpkins" up and down the hall in the above photo (another activity to work on core strength).

After once down the hall and back, we come upon a Strange Family (academic activity) whose members all walk at a different pace. This activity works on counting by numbers, and we'll add to it as the month goes on -- right now we're only using the "ones" verse. After our verses, we resume our trek back to the road, rolling the "pumpkins" down the hall and back again.

When we're almost to the road, we come upon a big snake (jump rope) blocking our path. We then do a variation on the "Wiggling Snake" jump rope activity -- the kids hold the pumpkins over their heads and jump the rope as I wiggle it, as we say the verse I modified: "Wiggling snake by the country road, how do I cross with my heavy load?" (The rest of the verse is the same as the activity is written in the movement book.) Zoo Boy demonstrates how that works in this photo. (An interesting side note, they're doing better with this activity having to carry the ball while jumping -- they're actually more careful about where they are putting their feet, whereas last circle, when we were doing the activity as described in the book, they were constantly getting "caught" by the snake.)

We celebrate getting past the snake, then do a Counting and Clapping game (academic activity) while waiting for the farmer's wagon. Finally he arrives and we climb aboard, bouncing down the hall and back several times on the moon bounce balls (proprioceptive work) while singing "Leaf Journey" one last time.

Back home, we thank the farmer for the ride, and set to work carving our "pumpkins" into jack-o-lanterns. The kids are really getting into pretending to do all the steps of carving out a pumpkin, and each day we describe exactly what we're carving, and every day it's a different shaped eye and nose, and a different kind of mouth, and all different from each other. We then ceremoniously place our jack-o-lanterns on our window sill, then do "Jack-o-Lantern" (fingerplay).

We move immediately to our closing song, "Sun is Rising", which is also the same regardless of the circle. We also always finish circle with a "group hug".

We're having a blast with this circle, enjoying the seasonal theme (which coincides not only with what we're seeing on our daily walks, but also with the stories they are reading during evening story time). Plus we're getting in a lot of work with core strength and crossing the mid-lines, which is what Zoo Boy needs to be working on now, and J can always use more of.