Forest Animals Week ~ Thursday

Ahhh, we really caught the best of our November sun this week! The kids enjoyed playing on the "Dew beads" art before moving on into the woods. 

 

 We started off our forest animals class with 2 stories at the shelter, one about a squirrel and the other about a mole. So when we spotted a mole hole on the trail we stopped to chat about it and inspect it closer.

These froglets have pretty impressive attention spans. At snack today I read The Story of Jumping Mouse, which is an incredible story (check it out from the library!) and the kids enjoyed it, but it's a long one and I was really impressed at their listening patience.

As always, there was lots of up and down traveling on our walk through the woods today.

 These guys also like to draw with sticks on and off the trail,

 writing their names and letters and shapes of all sorts.

 We talked a lot about gray squirrels today listening to their chatter and watching these busy creatures in action. Of course it is never hard to see many of them in our woods.At the end of our walk today we collected maple seeds (aka "helicopters") and I showed the students how the squirrels open them up and get out the seed.

Forest Animals Week ~ Tuesday

 

We lucked out at FH this week, getting a lovely run of sunny days right in time for our class! Today, for our forest animals class we started off reading a squirrel story and a mole story and then went straight up into the woods to spot some creatures if we could. Of course the ever common gray squirrel was spotted, and we chatted about their funny "spit marks the spot" habit and noticed their loud chatter. 

 

though mostly the kids were busy investigating the woods

The group impressed me today with their keen listening ears during snack as I read, The Story of Jumping Mouse, a lovely story of a mouse with a powerful message about compassion and determination (you should read it for yourself!).

The kids were quickly engaged in a game of castle at this big stump. I was given the role of "Queen" so how could I resist playing along? 

 

the view from my "castle"

Though as with any sessions of imaginative play with preschoolers their roles changed by the moment, from "soldier" to "leaf blower" to "driver of the pumpkin truck" on which we all sat to partake in what was likely the loudest Froggy Holler kiddos have ever been! 

 

I lead the kids in some hillarious and rousing versions of "jingle bells" and the "ABC's"

Its' really hard to tell kids to "use an inside voice" out here in our classroom without walls! And on a day like today, we all wanted to shout and sing and let it all out! So, why not?! 

Plus, then they got it all out and were ready to listen and learn again as we trekked down the hill and over to "sliding rock". There the kids slid and slid, and one even slumbered momentarily:

 

I suppose if you can hug trees and rest on rocks, life is good.

It was a frogtastic day!

Leaf Week: Thursday

We had a little tadpole with us for class today! H was our substitute M since Trez was sick and unable to watch her or bring M to class. I knew I could call Papa Todd if need be, but H and the boys seemed up to having her as our guest and as it turned out they all did wonderfully together! The boys were so sweet to her and she kept up great with the boys. Here were a few moments I captured:

 one really huge earthworm found and held by J

 some fun romping in the leaves, watching a squirrel above us gather maple seeds (helped teach a bit about next weeks topic for me!)

 sharing snacks nicely, while hiding out in yet another little fort, and listening to stories all the while

 a rare break on the playground, so we could make our leaf crowns and let H swing

hot cocoa party!

As you can see we are getting into the cooler fall days at FH, and I'm impressed by how well this group is doing! They are learning a lot, playing tons and staying cozy too.

Leaf Week: Tuesday

We celebrated the season this week by reading all about leaves, fall poems and songs, and collecting our own to make leaf crowns. It was a true FH test this Tuesday for the weather was chilly, but we warmed up with hot cocoa at the end of class and all was well!

Andre with his "drill:

 

Quin our resident tree climber extroidinaire:

Gathering up some bg leaf maple leaves:

Presenting Queen of the Woods I!

Boeing Creek Trip ~ Thursday

Trekking out in all new terrain is always exciting and this trip was no exception. It's always amazing to me how my 2 classes can be at the same place, the same week, with the same teacher and on the same theme, and yet have a completely different experience. This week it was particularly evident as we went straight down the path on Thursday and right alongside the creek to little Hidden Lake. We stopped along the way, played with those lovely big leaf maple leaves (noted how they have leaf molds cause they are decomposing) while trying to fly with them too of course. 

 

Then we did hop over the creek to have a snack and read Salmon Boy alongside the creek.

 creek hopping froglets!

 

J paused and noticed the creek was slower at this spot, and then he was off again:

 

evidence of Teacher Erin at work! 

We watched our leaf boats float quickly downstream:

We enjoyed glassy smooth Hidden Lake and visiting with a couple of friendly mallards:

 

 Had a nice walk back up the trail, with some rests at the waterfalls.

 

And did a little journaling, and poem writing with the creek just below.

A Trip to Boeing Creek ~ Tuesday

We had such an adventure today at Froggy Holler! The kids were really excited to be somewhere new and absorbed so much in our time at Boeing Creek Park. Right off they eagerly gathered the giant leaves of the big leaf maples,

observed numerous mushrooms, and natures signs:

 

"It's an arrow, or a house!" ~ IY

and found a lovely snack spot. As IN so sweetly put it, "We can sit here for snack, and have a view of nature!":

Which they did indeed. Before them the forest was all dappled in morning light and filled with the douglas firs, cedars, alders, big leaf maples, licorice ferns, salal, oregon grapes and much more forest fauna; countless chickadees and woodland birds twittering away; a woodpecker hammering for a snack as well as we watched; a noisy stellar jay above us; and the burbling creek below. 

While there, we also enjoyed the story of Salmon Boy and practiced balance beam log balancing lessons from I:

It was a bit hard to eave that spot, well for me at least, the kids of course were as eager as ever to further explore this park! So we were off, to an adventurous spot, over the creek,

 

  and then straight up the other side!

 Then, back down again, and back across the creek

 to another little peaceful spot. We stopped here to squish in the sandy mud, toss leaves in the water to watch them float quickly away, and poke and splash with sticks. I also took this time to have each of the kids create  a "Creek Poem" with me by asking them what they observed with their senses. What did they hear, smell, see down at the creek's side?

 

We balanced on logs as we left the creek to head back up to end our class.

 

 

As usual class was over far too soon, so we'll just have to come back to Boeing Creek again soon!

Tree Hugger Froglets, Thursday

A couple of tree hugging froglets and I had a lovely time in the woods today! We talked a lot about the trees all around us in Hamlin, having fun using our tree identification guide books. We also worked on bark rubbings as we went along to get a better sense of the differences between our native evergreens. The kids learned the trick to identifying a fir cone, see if they can tell you about the mice inside! ;)

Here we were in action, testing out our strength:

 noticing more mushroom growth as well,

 looking quite small among the firs I must say,

We'd stopped in this little valley to have our snack, read some lovely tree books and play. 

We also followed the cross country paths,

 played on sliding rock during a bark rubbing stop,

 

 and tested out the capabilities of tree sap (will it help us glue some sticks together?),

 And at the end of our session we gathered different types of cones: pine, fir, hemlock,cedar and finished off our bark rubbings!

Tree hugging fun indeed!