In November, the toddler room was visited by an incredible special guest: Five the Magician from the Big Smiles Company based in Kitchener! Our toddlers absolutely love to move and dance, so when Five first arrived, he immediately captured their attention by playing music as he got his stage and props ready for the show.
It wasn’t long before he was ready to start, and the very first act had even the educators paying close attention as he flourished his way through a set of colourful scarves, only for the last one to reveal a live white dove. As the toddlers sat in wide-eyed amazement at the sudden appearance of the animal, Five brought the dove, perched on his hand, close to each child and asked if they would like to give it a gentle touch. Everyone was very brave and careful as they followed directions to touch the dove with just one finger. For the remainder of the show, the dove didn’t have a carrier or cage to sit inside – but simply sat and watched from on top of another one of Five’s props! He performed the second trick with the help of one of our very own toddlers who approached the box where the bird was sitting on top. Five placed a balloon inside the box, closed it up, and helped our friend wave her magic wand, then push it through the bars of the box’s door to pop the balloon. Out from the “pop” came a white and grey bunny rabbit!
Similar to the dove, the bunny paid each toddler a visit and an opportunity to give her a gentle pet. However, this little animal was so friendly that rather than being brought around in the magician’s hands, she hopped across our carpet from one child to another, even stopping to rest in the laps of a couple along the way. It was a truly magical start to the performance. As the group watched and waited for her to come closer to them, Five shared some interesting facts about rabbits as a species. He told us that their noses are always moving as they take in their environment through their sense of smell, and he explained that their big eyes rarely ever blink. He also told us that this particular bunny that had popped out of the balloon was called a “lop-eared” rabbit, named for the way her ears drooped downwards instead of standing up.
This trivia led the show into the next part of the show, where the toddlers became bunnies, too! The magician’s rabbit was carefully returned to her box from which she watched the show underneath the dove, and the toddlers got to stand up and get moving, acting out their new knowledge about bunnies by trying to wiggle their noses, keep their eyes open big and wide, and of course, hop-hop-hopping to some music. It made for a great transition between a sitting, focused portion of the show to what many of our toddlers love best: being active.
These exciting gross motor activities continued with a number of props woven into games themed around the toddlers pretending to be bunnies on Five’s farm. They took turns crawling through a tunnel, first setting a personal best at how quickly they could get from one end to the other, then trying hard to go even faster. After a break from crawling and hopping to take part in an interactive story called “The Farmer, the Rabbit, and the Fairy of the Woods,” during which two children and an educator were dressed up in costumes to play their parts, the toddler bunnies returned to the tunnel challenge one last time. For the performance’s grand finale, they were challenged to crawl through like before, but with the added obstacle of a rope fence held up at the tunnel’s exit. They had to get through the gap in the fence and “steal” Farmer Five’s carrots. They had so much fun playing imaginatively, quickly crawling after their friends and cheering for each other’s accomplishments when they finished.
The toddler room at St Matthew is so grateful to Five the Magician, the Big Smiles Company, and our centre’s leadership for the opportunity to engage with this incredible special guest and his exciting show. The children made lots of new discoveries about rabbits, farmers, and magic that they will surely remember forever!
