Friday, April 29, 2011

The ABC's of Hamlin ~ Friday

This group is soaking up my teachings quickly, so doing an ABC search was a fun chance to teach more. Here were a few of their ideas:
B is for balance:
 and B is for beetle:
T is for tree stump:
 
F is for fungus:
 
S is for sow bug: 
D is for decomposing log:
X is for boX:
(cause we knew X would be a tricky one to find and Teacher Erin knew where this secret box was!)
L is for log:
 
and L is also fun to make with sticks:
Had I captured it, there would have been LOTS of "R is for running today"! The kids found a big hill they decided was perfect to hike up and run down over, and over, and over again! I was talked into trying it out at least once, and running like that is pretty exhilarating, I can't blame them for loving it!

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

The ABC's of Hamlin ~ Tuesday

Now that we are quite familiar with our Froggy Holler home base of Hamlin Park, I thought it would be a great time to create a list (and possibly a book) of the ABC's of Hamlin. The kids had a lot of fun identifying all sorts of plant life for me and were happy to have me photograph their findings.
Here are just a few:
P is for pine cone:
O is for Oregon grape:
 
 R is for roots (though T is for teamwork also applies to this shot):
G is for gravel:
 
F is for fort:
 
This was also where our alphabet hunt really disipated and a game of "hide from the wolves" began which somehow transitioned to a game of "chocolate factory". 
 Wow that chocolate chopping action is so fast the choppers are hardly visible!
Mmm, D is for dirt, which was in I.'s mind "C is for chocolate"!
This was the mixing of chocolate and peanut butter, yum:
These kiddos are destined for good things considering their propensity for innovation and chocolateire expertise, and I'm not just saying that because I love chocolate. Our ABC hunt will continue when we have the chance and I look forward to sharing the whole list with you by the end of our spring session!

Friday, April 15, 2011

Signs of Spring ~ Friday

We had a wonderful time at class today exploring the park and spending a bit of time noticing the signs of spring all around! Since most of this group is still getting used to Froggy Holler, we focused more on exploring the park and having fun together than the topic this week. These kiddos are such a fast moving group I have a harder time capturing them with photos, but I did catch the group on this little bouncing log together:
 
and new member O balancing on a decomposing log as well:
We had an interesting finding today, while we were rounding a corner we came upon a Native American woman drumming. We did our best to avoid her (as we realized she wanted privacy), but did enjoy her song and music that she was sharing with the woods. We heard a lot of bird song, and noticed some different bird habitat in a hole in a nearby tree while we were snacking and reading our spring books.
Back at the shelter, after writing time and class time was technically over, the kids played and played some more on the playground. They really enjoy each other's company!

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Signs of Spring ~ Tuesday

This week we went on a big hunt for spring! As we took a big loop walk around the park we searched high and low for all the many signs of spring we could find, and the kids did an awesome job. They were particularly excited about all the mud!
 
 
 I love I's "See here is mud." hand gesture
 Clover!
 A little spring cleaning trail sweeping was happening too
 Not all of us are as thrilled as the preschoolers about the new dandelions everywhere!
 More mud!
New baby bracken fern
 New huckleberry growth
 New daffodils and evidence of new baby slugs eating them
 A little hill sliding action
 New baby Oregon grade
 New cedar growth
 Evidence of the brute strength of a 5 year old, A's "strong hands!"
 A was especially helpful to his pals today in carrying their bags for them cause he is SO strong now!
At Froggy Holler the signs of spring are in the air for sure!

Friday, April 8, 2011

Welcome Spring, Fridays!

I'm so excited that we get to have a second session this spring on Fridays! What a great day to get out and run around with our pals! Let me tell you this group is certainly going to keep Teacher Erin fit. I saw a lot of this today:
 Q had a great time showing the boys all around, in the tiny hole under this tree he fit in as a baby,
 They even had to pose it up for me.
 They were so busy exploring, running, climbing, listening to me try to blab as much as I could to a new audience,
 We made it a fair distance all around the park, stopping for a snack in blackberry meadow and reading a fun frog book there. Back at the shelter they were really engaged in their journals, writing away and then relaxing with some frog coloring. N even created a map showing where we had been in the park today.
It was a wonderful start to our spring session Friday class!

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Welcome Spring, Tuesdays!

 We jumped right into Spring session today! We were excited to welcome a new member of our class for this session, and she fit right in. 
We had fun reading frog books, singing our goofy frog song, and hopping around like frogs today. The kids also did a lot of log balancing, 
 
squelching about in the mud, 
playing of Froggy Holler Cafe, 
And doing under a rock investigations,
Which included lots of worm and other insects holding, by AY especially,
She insisted over and over on holding another insect or worm and I don't think they grossed her out as much as this picture looks like they did! She was laughing and saying how much they tickled, so it's funny to see her look of concern!
We're hoppy it's spring around here!