It was so fun having Stevie hang loose with us in Hawaii. It was fun to find out where he has traveled by seeing Stevie’s souvenirs from around the world. One student had just been to Singapore, so he recognized the Merlion. We loved taking Stevie on adventures at our school. He took the island life seriously and wanted to remove his shoes like all of the students. On day 1, the Busy Bees were so anxious to play with him and began treating him like a stuffed animal and that he could do anything. But one of the students said, “wait! we need to be more careful with him. What can we do with him that would make sense?” From that moment, they began to work together to make sure Stevie had a lot of fun but was also safe. Looking into and reading about how students in wheelchairs can access some of the same stuff got the kids really thinking outside the box and creating all access games, spaces, etc…
Within a few days of Stevie arriving, one of our friends in kindergarten came to school with his own wheelchair. He had broken his whole leg. He was really bummed and nervous about being at school in a wheelchair. So our class asked if we could come down and share Stevie and our new knowledge about being inclusive and accomodating. That boy was so excited to meet Stevie. Even their wheelchairs matched!
We are sad to see Stevie go but we understand that he must go home and rest before his next adventure. Aloha and mahalo Stevie!
