Candy, costumes and creepy things, October is here. Teens and adults are all getting ready for the creepiest night of the year. But, let’s not forget about the younger kids excited for treats. The Early Bird Learning Center has some fun activities planned for the young students. On Wednesday, October 12, 2016 the kids headed to Carolyn’s Cousin’s Pumpkin Patch.

“Field trips merge classroom learning with real-world experience and build on student’s background knowledge. Nothing beats an exciting hands-on field trip experience to deepen learning,” Child Development teacher Amy Mallams said. “The learning takes place in an environment where all of the senses are stimulated. Students involved in these authentic learning opportunities are more likely to remember what they smell, hear, see, touch and taste. The magic of our field trips is not just about the learning experiences, but also about the adventures that open up the student’s minds to new things.”

At the pumpkin patch the students participate in an interactive, educational pumpkin patch tour in order to give

children a realistic impression of farm life

and assist students with

learning about how plants grow and the process by which food ends up on their table. The hands-on educational experience centers around pumpkins and includes a presentation, animal petting barn, hayride, playground and wagon rides. Each child gets to take home with them a pie pumpkin, honey stick and coloring book.

Besides going to the pumpkin patch the Early Bird students get to dress up in costumes, trick-or-treat to various faculty/staff at LHS, play Halloween games, have treats and sing and dance to Halloween songs. They also create art, read Halloween-related books, watch the movie, Spookley the Square Pumpkin and

generally enjoy the fun of Halloween.

The kids have done these activities for a long time due to a popular amusement between everyone that works with the Early Bird students.

“The students enjoy the activities every year,” Mallams said. “It is such a fun and memorable event for our class, students, school and teachers.”

The students feel all of the activities are super fun and are instant favorites for them.

Another event Early Bird has is a mini

parade. The parade occurs throughout the

trick-or-treating experience. It takes place down the hallways of the school, to the LMC, the office, nurses office and back to their class.

In Child Growth and Development students go and help the Early Bird kids about once every week. Each student is assigned a buddy and that is the person they work with every week. The students feel they bond really well with their buddies and have a lot of fun in class.

“I love working with the kids,” senior Janai Simpson said. “They somehow grow an attachment to you and they’ll hug your legs and say, ‘I love you, Janai!’ and it’s really sweet.”

They students may help out at Early Bird a little more during holidays such as Halloween but what do the preschoolers do on normal days?

“In class we look at what their developmental milestones are like, do they know their ABC’s, do they know their shapes,” senior Casidy Meeks said. “So we may have a worksheet like, ‘color the square purple’ or ‘tell me your alphabet’.”

The Early Bird preschoolers focus on being a fun and educational group. Staff and students love their company and seeing them learn so much around the school.