planning an adventure circle

I'm in the process of preparing for our next block, which begins next Monday. I'm pretty much ready with my Language Arts plans, which brings me to my next project -- planning out our new Adventure Circle. I've had a bunch of questions in the past, especially from others with kiddos with Special Needs, asking how I go about deciding what to include in our circle, and how to weave it into a story, so I thought this might be a good time to answer some of those questions and try to describe my process.

I start with a seasonal theme, which allows what the kids are seeing in their environment to naturally support them in our circle. Since the Enki Education curriculum is set up to encourage that very thing, there are a variety of seasonally appropriate movement activities in their Movement books, so it's just a matter of selecting those activities that give my kids what they need in terms of sensory integration and weaving those into a story line.

This coming block I'm going to focus on Maple Sugaring, as the Maples here in New England were recently tapped and the sugar houses are gearing up for their busy season. This also allows our circle to support our Science Curriculum (our nature story this week will be about Sugaring as well). An integrated approach to learning is very important to me, and works best for my kids -- everything we work on supports everything else.

Identifying my kids' current needs is the tricky part. Since they are constantly developing and changing, what they need out of circle changes too, so I am constantly reevaluating which components need to be included. Which is one of the reasons I like to change to a different circle each block -- at the end of four weeks, my kids are almost always in a different "place" with individual skills and needs than they were at the start of the block. I do try to carry some of the same activities over, however, for some consistency and familiarity.

Right now, J has the sensory needs of a fairly typical 1st grader. That means that he needs a balance of working on mid-line crossing, base senses (vestibular and proprioceptive), and tactile work, in increasingly challenging increments, and that his needs can be met fairly well by the Enki Education 1st Grade Movement activities. His motor planning skills can always use some strengthening, and I need to be sure to ground any spinning activities (vestibular stimulation) with good solid proprioception (joint impacting), otherwise he feels dizzy.

For Zoo Boy's needs, I depend not only on my own observations of him, but also on the advice of the professional Occupational Therapists that he works with every week. Right now we're focusing on core strength, motor planning, and alternating motions (right side, then left side, then right side, etc). These are all precursors to being able to cross mid-lines, which he finds extremely difficult. He also has a lot of issues around his vestibular system, so I sneak in a little of that here and there. And he has always had a need for lots and lots of proprioception -- "heavy work" the OTs like to call it. He needs a huge amount of joint impaction to feel grounded and able to focus on tasks, even simple tasks like eating or walking.

But there's a problem in working his needs into our circle -- Zoo Boy is still highly resistant to most of the Enki activities that combine verse and/or singing with movement. My best guess is that it is too complex for him to try to listen and move at the same time -- when he listens to music, he sits stock still. So he "sits out" most of that part of the circle, watching from nearby so that he is still engaged with the circle. It would be easy to mistake his lack of participation in those segments as disinterest, but in fact, if you were to ask, he will tell you that he loves adventure circle. He's processing it in his own way.

HOWEVER! He also needs the sensory work that the Enki activities provide, every bit as much (in fact, probably much more) than his brother. I get around this by writing in sensory activities that meet his needs in between the Enki activities. So he's getting nourished by the rich verses and songs of the Enki activities by watching and listening to J and I do them, but also getting the sensory integration work he needs.

My general formula is to select a couple of opening-type activities to "awaken body and breath", as the Enki materials state. Then we do a couple of mid-line crossing type activities, and at least one vestibular and one tactile activity. I modify almost all of the activities slightly to emphasize proprioception, and will occasionally throw in extra proprioception-rich activities. I also include a few activities that have a strong motor-planning component. Simple jump rope games and hopping across pillows laid out on the ground are examples of these sorts of activities.

Then all that is left is to write a simple storyline around the activities so that there is the feeling of moving from one part of the story to the next as we go along. I try to include story language like "Once upon a time," in my story plan, as my kids like the feel of acting out a "real" story.

Stay tuned to see how our Maple Sugaring Adventure Circle turns out! It's shaping up to be a fun one!