Butterfly Week ~Tuesday

 This week I brought in a group of 5 painted lady caterpillars (from an Insect lore kit). The kids got the chance to see this stage of the butterfly life cycle before we read about them in our butterfly books this week. 

Then we flew on over to the rocky creek and played over there for a bit.

The butterflies turned into giraffes at some point:

After the butterfly kids flew back to shelter, we worked on some butterfly paintings. 

 

I told the kids we were going to use "ketchup" and "mustard", which they all believed until they got started on their work and realized I was teasing! 

These $ store bottles worked well though as squirt bottles for paint, so I'm sure we'll be doing more condiment painting in future FH classes. Their paintings turned out beautifully! 

Boeing Creek ~ Friday

We were all really excited to be in a new spot to explore this week. Some of these kiddos had never been to Boeing Creek so I was excited to share it with them. Again we went on a texture hunt while in the park as well, making quite a massive list I might add, of everything from sticky (cleavers or "sticky weed" as I call it) to rough, sharp, soft, hard etc. 

We went on down the main trail to Hidden Lake with this group and had fun at the lake watching this sweet family of mallards. 

We also noticed other area bird life like the bufflehead ducks at the far end of the lake.

Keeping these kiddos out of the water was all sorts of fun, they were all eagerly chatting about coming back in the summer and really going in, hmmm... They did manage their way over to what our Namer Man Aaron called "Sunny Desert Island" leaving "Rainy Beach" behind.

Then we headed back up the trail past the little waterfalls,

 

and back on our quest for more textured items, like rough bark, and fir cones,

 

What a fun adventure to Boeing Creek!

Boeing Creek ~ Tuesday

 Our first Spring field trip was to Boeing Creek this week. We've now come in every season here and the kids love it! We trekked on the challenging route today, which meant some fun creek traversing, 

and snacking at this particular spot before climbing further up. 

This was completely their choice for a snack spot, narrow enough for them, but a challenge for this teacher's bootie I must say!

Post snack, sandy offering to the fairies:

 

We were doing a "descriptive hike" today, so the kids were looking for items that were pointy, round, silppery, etc. items.

This list was extensive as you can imagine, and a poem of sorts from our list will be added to their journals.

Gooey mud:

 

Soft moss:

 

Gritty sand aka "volcano":

Slippery rocks:

The kids had a wonderful time in this little spot imaging it was their home:

 

There was ample fishing in the creek nearby and water to enjoy time in.

On our hike back up the hill we stopped and gazed up at the huge doug firs and admired their size. Imagining what those trees have seen in their hundreds of years on our earth puts it all in perspective.

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!

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!

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!

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!