Sunday, August 30, 2009

Sensory Camp is Awesome!- Day five.

*Big sight*
The last day of sensory camp was a bitter sweet affair. Bitter because it was such a wonderful program and we were all so very sad to see it end and sweet because we got to taste vegetables from the teaching garden and make a tasty face. But I'm getting a head of myself. First things first, I finally got a photo of the legendary manatee on wheels!


We reviewed all the five senses on the green carpet after we were all name tagged and signed in. Then we headed off to the teaching garden For the last time :(
At the teaching garden we planted our very own Bean and lettuce plants. One of the facilitators gave us a quick demonstration on how to fill the pots, put the seeds in and water with a spray bottle.
Then each child got their very own pot with their name on it and planted their beans.

Afterwords the pots were stack in a bin to carry back to the center while we read a book, but , the story was interrupted by a loader bringing logs for a new log circle. It was very difficult to concentrate on the story with that interesting machine doing interesting things.


After the story it was time to harvest some vegetables and have a little taste. We had a walk around the garden and the facilitator identified different vegetables and picked one of each.

Then the children were invited to find, pick, and taste a black bean all by themselves.


For snack time we were able to taste all the other vegetables.
White cucumber, yellow zucchini, yellow beet, and green and red tomatoes.


Ben did not like the zucchini or the beet but he did like the cucumber and the bean. He declined to try the tomatoes as he is not fond of tomatoes. Those of you who know Ben know that he is a very finicky eater and it has always been a challenge to get him to try new foods. I was surprised and delights that he tried so many new vegetables all at once.



During free play one of the little girls tried to teach Ben how to hula hoop. She was pretty good at it too.
Ben made several valiant attempts and then decided to try to pull hula hoops into the tube instead.

After free play it was time for a song and then back to the center for our craft.


On the way back we played follow the leader once again.



Our craft was making a tasty face that we could eat. The pudding was a big hit.




The tasty face disappeared very quickly.


Then it was time to say goodbye to Sensory Camp. But, at least we have a piece of camp to take home in the form of a bean seed which we will hopefully be able to grow into a lovely pant.

Saturday, August 29, 2009

Unbelievable cuteness!

I had to break from the sensory camp updates to share the cutest thing. (But, actually it is related to sensory camp.) When all the children were sitting on the green carpet after their greeting and lesson when we were ready to head to the teaching garden the facilitator would say "If you're wearing red you may go and get ready........If you're wearing stripes you may go and get ready...." and so on and so forth.
Well yesterday after camp Ben was sitting over his open car box, with all his little cars saying "If you are yellow you can come out." then taking all the yellow cars out. "If you are green you can come out" and then taking out all the green ones.
He did this until the entire car box was empty. It was cuter than I can describe.

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Sensory camp is awesome! - Day Four

Today we explored our sense of touch. We started out as per usual with the activities tables and Ben made a bee line for the Manatee with wheels in the bug bucket. Which lead to me having an interesting discussion with another Mother. (I thought Manatees were commonly known, but apparently they are not, well just in case you don't know what I mean when I say "Manatee on wheels" it's like this only with wheels.)
The sun was shinning brightly so off we went to the teaching garden. One of the little girls decided that she was going to hold Ben's hand, and they skipped a long full of care free youthful exuberance.


Ben was unfortunately a little too exuberant and he fell and cut his hand, but I was able to take care of it. with some disinfectant, polysporin, a Wall-E Bandaid, and a kiss.
Then we sang some songs in the teaching garden that involved jumping,


and next the children used their sense of touch to explore objects hidden in a sack to see if they could guess what they were just from touching. We had snack with a story about a spider and his textured web.

At free play time Ben went straight for the watering cans again, and even though I don't like to structure or influence his free play, I felt obligated to tell him that there was a sand pit with shovels.
So he was happily digging away until we were called back to circle. Then he was sad that he didn't have an opportunity to water any plants so we quickly ran over to the watering wheel barrow and quickly water a plant.
After free play my suspicions that the the facilitators at sensory camp are tree huggers was confirmed! ;)
The children had to feel a tree with their eyes closed and try to remember the feel of that particular tree, and then find it again later. It was really sweet and a great activity.
Ben helped tidy up the tube and hoops and we all headed back to the center to do a craft.



On the way back the children demanded to play follow the leader, and the facilatator concented provided that the children stayed behind her, which they did very well.


Then we found out why it is important to stay behind the leader when a little park buggy came zooming down the hill.


Back at the center we made touch paintings with different textured materals and glue.


When we were leaving Ben was sad that tomorrow would be the last day of sensory camp and he was telling me that he hopes school will be just like sensory camp. Sadly he was very disappointed to learn that there will be no teaching garden at school......

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Sensory Camp is awesome! Day Three

Even when it rains!
I was remiss in taking photos today, because things were a little different.
First of all we were a little late (well, we weren't but our bus was), and we didn't go to the teaching garden because of the rain.

The sense we focused on today was our sense of hearing.
We started off with the activities tables, and then went into a new room to play some hearing games. First the children had to try to be quite while "stealing" bugs from the "spider". The second game was a young child's version of the Farmer and the Thief. Each child got a card with an animal on it and the had to find their partner by making their animals noise. Unfortunately the other "wolf" was not participating, so Ben did not find his partner.
Then it was time for crafts so we made noise makers.
It is very, um, loud.
After crafts it was snack time. By then the sun had come out so we went into the court yard to play some more games.
Ben was a dog in the animal cracker game.

And they also played Red light Green light.


There are only two days of sensory camp left!
Oh dear, next week will certainly be boring.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Sensory Camp is Awesome! Day 2

Day two at Sensory camp was just as awesome as day one!

We were much more excited on the way, because we had a better idea of what it was going to be like and we were pretty sure we were going to have lots of fun.


We started off in the Center again with the activities tables while the adults got organized, today Ben chose to explore the giant plastic bug bucket (In which he found a Manatee on wheels, which was obviously not a bug.) Then after reviewing what we learned yesterday about our senses, the children made special coloured glasses to wear on the walk over to the teaching garden.

When we reached the garden we sang some songs before snack and free play time. Once again Ben chose to water the vegetables, but he also chose to roll around in the tube for a bit.




One boy found a butterfly and a facilacator caught it to show us all. (And let it go again of course)

After that the children played a different kind of hide and seek where they were mice trying to camouflage themselves so that the hawk (one of the facilitators) could not find them. This game cause lots of giggles. We played follow the leader on the walk back to the center (All the children who wanted to got a chance to be the leader.)


Back at the center we made tissue paper butterflies, which all turned out beautiful!