One morning in the Toddler Program, gourds were placed inside the tuff tray as an invitation for play. Children seemed to notice them immediately and gravitated to this space.
Jack reached out and gently shook the gourd appearing to see if it made any sounds. “Do you hear anything?” I asked. He looked at me but did not respond. “No, no sounds", I replied. He then tapped it on the wooden climber. It made a thumping sound. He turned his head in my direction with lips turned up and an expression of surprise.
Prior to this experience, we had engaged in a musical movement activity where the children explored with musical shakers. It appeared that Jack was curious if the gourds also created a sound when being shook.
Kobe came over to the gourds, picked one up and began rolling it. He then started feeling the lumps and bumps on the skin. “Bumpy!” I interjected. Troy came over to investigate what his peer was observing. He reached over and felt the bumps on the gourd. “Bumpy,” he replied.
This soon turned into a rolling activity as Kobe and Troy began rolling the gourds on different surfaces in the room. They started off using the tray, moved them to the floor then rolled them along the shelf.
To deepen the exploration of the gourd rolling, they were placed up on the climber so children could experience rolling them at different heights. Roohe came over to join this play. She picked up the gourd, and using an overhand approach, threw the gourd down the ramp. She seemed to be unsure why it didn’t roll as she saw others rolling theirs. Using language and modelling to scaffold this experience, educators bent close to the ramp and with a gentle arm motion, slowly rolled it down, emphasizing the word “roll.” Roohe made many attempts at rolling until she appeared satisfied with her results as she then moved on to other play.
To extend the interest with the texture of this material, the gourds were added to the play dough table. The children seemed to incorporate the gourds into their play without any hesitation. Placing balls of playdough on top of the pumpkin gourd stems, and wrapping it on the outside, were just some of the ways the children used it in their play.
To add more focus on sensory play and hand control, the gourds were placed in a large tray of water and bubbles. Sponges and other loose material were added to provide a variety of ways to manipulate and explore textures and sizes. Prestley used the sponge to rub on the outer skin of the gourd. He scooped bubbles to pour on top of it. He smiled and laughed as he played. “Smooth,” I said as he rubbed a smoother textured gourd. “Lumpy!” I replied when he manipulated a textured gourd.
As another way to emphasize the different sizes and textures of our gourds, we placed them in paint and manipulated them on tinfoil. Eva moved her hand back and forth with her painted gourd. “Smear, smear, smear!” I repeated as I noted this play. Elijah manipulated his painted gourd using a different technique. He used two hands and an up and down motion. “Dot, dot, dot!” I commented. The children were able to visually see prints the different textured gourds created. I continued to use vocabulary to label the different prints and movements the material created.
This activity included seasonal material that we thought would spark natural curiosity. We began this exploration with one large pumpkin shaped gourd. We expanded the following week with a variety of gourds in different sizes, shapes and colours. It was presented as an open-ended material, displayed on a tray. Educators observed how the children used the material and created activities that we thought supported the play we observed. Educators will continue to create more extensions during the following weeks. We will add gourds to water play and observe how the different sizes float and sink, cut gourds open to see and feel the textures inside and we will save some gourds to observe as they dry out and the seeds create rattle noises. These are some ways we will extend and deepen the children’s interests and play to support their learning.
We will now sit with the question of how do we move forward with our current observations without gourds? The gourds have opened up many possibilities of interests. Texture? Gravity? Movement? Sound?
