Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Boeing Creek for Tues Pre

 
We've been coming to the creek for each season of class this year, but with some new classmates visiting for the first time this spring, and all sorts of new discoveries to make there, it was like a brand new place!
 As seen above: bird watching (mostly Mallard ducks and violet green swallows) hugging the Grandfather Fir, exploring creek waters, playing with the soft muddy sand, balancing across the creek, and wearing sticky weed crowns!
While at the park we also worked on our ABC book a little more:
 
Binoculars, a heart rock, a big leaf maple, salmon berries (which they also enjoyed sampling today telling me, "No they are not too sour for me!"), and thimble berries. 
What a great time we had at the creek!

Thursday, May 24, 2012

ABC's in the Woods K

These kiddos really know the story with the ABC's of the woods since some of them did it with me last year! They really worked well giving me all sorts of ideas! Here are some of the pictures from the week:
 
Also special this week,
lots of fun tent play in my little pop up tent,
Some time by the creek and checking on the baby dinosaur in it's "nest":
And some special marshmallow roasting on my teeny tiny stove:
It's always a fun week at FH, but this one was really fabulous!

ABC's in the Woods Thurs Pre

The kids did a wonderful job adding to our growing list of ideas for the ABC's of FH this year! It had rained right before class started so our first order of business was to go investigate at the creek, and sure enough it was really flowing all the way to the drain!
The kids really had fun playing in the water before we headed into the woods!
Here are some of the pics from their ABC hunt today:
 
 And they discovered sticks can make letters too:
 Then there was the whole, "What about Z?  What starts with Z in the woods?" thing that ended up in a very goofy game of, "Look it's a zebra! There's a zebra in the woods!" which went on and on...Oh these kiddos are SO silly! They especially LOVE to tease Teacher Erin! ;)

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

ABC's in the Woods Tues Pre

We are working on creating our own ABC book for Froggy Holler this year, so the kids helped me identify as many plants, animals, and actions we do in the woods to help! We had a lot of fun photographing it all. 
 As with every session here at FH we do a lot not on the theme, besides our exploration of the woods and story time of course, like roasting food on the fire (oh I guess that might have been F is for fire...;)),
 jumping into little sink holes,
 and attempting to make leaf necklaces with tiny letter cutters:
as Mr. Goofy face here is demoing ;) 
I'll have fun making this ABC book and I can't wait for the kids to see their work and their faces in print! :)

Saturday, May 19, 2012

How Froggy Holler was Named

"Froggy Holler" is a curious name for a preschool I know so I suppose I ought to explain...;) 

There are a few reasons, first off, my mother in law Patti was a high school science and math teacher, and one warm school day her class was dissecting frogs. Well the class window (on the second story) was open that warm day and a student was working on his frog when his dissecting tool slipped and swoosh, before he knew it the frog flew right out the window! Well, unbenounced to the class the principal and other staff were walking right below and saw the flying frog in shock! Patti never lived it down, but she did play it up! From then on being the artist she is she drew flying frogs on the students assignments. So, when I had a classroom of my own I thought it would be fun to be the "frog teacher". I quite quickly had all sorts of stuffed frogs, frog fabric decor etc. and of course I had Patti draw me all sorts of frog posters for my classroom. 
 the school counselor in my 3rd grade room, 
check out all those posters in the background!
When I became a Mom to my son Quin I loved being home with him, and couldn't imagine being back in the classroom anytime soon. Eventually, I began to have dreams of starting my own little school (that Quin could be at) and thought that since I was the frog teacher after all I'd like my little school to have a froggy title. When I was younger I had a best friend that lived in an area on Vashon her dad named "Froggy Holler" (you can visit, it's near Camp Sealth) and I thought that sounded cute and fun! So, after I began hearing more about outdoor schools in our area in 2010, I decided to create "Froggy Holler" through the Shoreline Parks Department! The silly thing is there aren't really real frogs in Hamlin Park. ;) But the best thing about our name is when I get to shout, "Froggy" and the students all exclaim, "Holler" back at me! And that's the story!

Friday, May 4, 2012

Flower Week, Thurs Pre

Today, in between learning about flowers and their seeds there was also
 rock sliding,
dancing to flower music,
the finding and studying of an old large paper wasp nest,
a nice long hike around the woods,
time to chat,
LOTS of litter pick up,
stomping through the excellent mud,
some "fishing" in "Froggy Creek",
and then with our dandelions some hammering print making.
It was a full and fun day at froggy school!

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Flower Week, Tues Pre

 
We got to celebrate May Day together in preschool this week. It was appropriately flower and seeds week so we were busy bees learning and doing projects on our theme! 
 We picked LOTS of dandelions, and heard a dandelion story:
We used all the dandelions to make hammered pictures,
and flower necklaces
We also read another story, danced to flower songs,
and discussed and planted seeds: