Arachnids Abound!

We had a lot of fun searching for spiders this week at Hamlin! We lucked out too, and really did find some beauties. Of course we also had to sing spider songs, read a spider story, look for other insects and such under logs, make our own webs and spiders, and play!

Tuesday Froglets:

Tuesday Frogs:

Wednesday Froglets:

Thursday Tadpoles:

Thursday we found a teeny tiny baby salamander! (Top right in the middle of the pic)

And tiny baby mushrooms on cones, it was a day of tiny wonders all around! I think these kiddos are now well adept at helping any frightened adults in their lives, shall they encounter spiders in their homes!

Trees of the Woods

Considering we have had a serious lack of rain this fall (80 days!), "Fun with Fungi" wasn't really possible! So, doing tree week and telling all my "tree tales" seemed like a great idea. We focused on Douglas Fir, Hemlock, Madrone, Big Leaf Maple, and a few others. We did bark rubbings, sang the Trees of Hamlin Park song, heard tree stories, and also enjoyed time in fairy valley building with tree parts, aka branches!

Tuesday Preschool Froglets:

This week this class did an excellent job working together, had fun in fairy valley constructing, and had a BLAST finding "sliding hill" and whipping up clouds of dust!

 

It was bath time after class for those kiddos! 

Tuesday K Frogs:

As a special activity this week the K kids threw "spears" down spear hill. They were excellent at following directions and got lots of turns, I didn't catch each of them in action, but here are many:

Wednesday Preschool Froglets:

This week the kids were really into posing for me! Here are the kiddos hiding (not so sneakily and popping out to scare me!) and up on the log being princesses and such:

They really enjoyed their fairy house building and made some impressive structures, and worked so well together:

And there was some amazing running! I didn't catch them all, but here are a few:

Thursday Tadpoles:

This group made funny tree puppets with their bark rubbings instead of in journals, had fun also with the fairy houses, and while we listened to music we played our stick "instruments":

Thanks for a treerific week everyone!

Bird Week!

It was such a fun week at Froggy Holler! Teacher Erin (red! ;)) rented bird kits from the Seattle Audubon. These kits were full of such wonderful materials, and the kids loved them! Best of all were the real bird skins (aka dead stuffed birds), talons, skulls, and more! Here is some of the action from this week!

Tuesday Preschool Froglets:

 The highlight for the Tuesday class was happening to see the barred ow high up in a tree right above us. Then, a cooper's hawk (we believe) came over right next to the owl! Wow, what luck!
Tuesday K Frogs:

The K students were given the chance to study the bird skins up close, and also enjoyed making "nests" for their bird puppets.
Wednesday Preschool Froglets:

 
Our Wednesday class also enjoyed the skins, the binoculars, making nests, and lots of bird play.
Thursday Tadpoles:

Does it get any cuter than a 2 year old hooting or looking through their binos?
Look I even took a few pictures at Emonds Heights this week!

The students really enjoyed their close up studies there. 
I'm really looking forward to renting more of these kits later this winter and spring, so get ready for more bird fun later this year!

Beach Week!

We learned about the water cycle this week while visiting a big body of water, the Puget Sound (now part of the "Salish Sea") at Richmond Beach! We had fun visiting creatures on the beach, learning about different types of seaweed (succulent, lettuce, turkish towels, etc.), making beach fairy houses, exploring the forts, reading water stories, dancing along with funny water cycle songs, and having fun on the beach together!

Tuesday Preschool Froglets:

 

   Tuesday K Frogs: 

Wednesday Preschool Pollywogs:

Thursday Tadpoles:

Under a Log Week

This week we talked about insects and other under a log sorts of findings. This time of year we were finding all sorts of arachnids, crustaceans, mollusks and more! We also met another Teacher Erin, used magnifying glasses, started our nature journals (or made puppets in the tots class), named "Spiderman trail" and of course had lots of fun playing, music making, and learning outside together! 

Tuesday Pre Froglets:

(not pictured, an insect dance party at the end of class! ;))

Tuesday K Frogs:

 Yes, if you look closely we did find a dead mouse, and Teacher Erin (Red) was the only one who touched it as we buried it together. There was lots of discussion on life cycles today! Also above, dead beetle exoskeletons. 

We also generated some unanswered questions, why were there so many insects wings in this spot on a douglas fir, and why so much condensation on the outside of this shelf fungus:

 Wednesday Pre Pollywogs:

We celebrated a special birthday this week! We are happy to celebrate your child's bday at FH!

Thursday Tadpoles:

I hope your children are searching for insects at home, and at other parks more than ever, I know I am! Our family just got a special bug case and preserving equipment so I hope to share that with you all soon!

Fall Classes begin!

What a truly FUN week we had starting off Froggy Holler! It was so exciting to meet so many fun new students and families! I will try my best to share some thoughts each week with you all here, and photos too. The first session is all about getting to know the group, the routines, rules, songs, etc. and the time always flies by! It was froggy week and we hopped right into action:

Tuesday Preschool:

 

 Tuesday K:

 

 Wednesday Preschool:

 

 Thursday Parent Tot:

 

Goodness there are a whole lot of eager learners, who are adorable at FH this year! It's going to be so much fun this fall learning and playing with them!

Fairy Camp at Kruckeberg!

We had a delightful week at Fairy Camp at Kruckeberg Botanic Garden this summer! This group of very sweet kiddos was so fun to craft and play with. Here are some photos of all the fun we had each day:

Monday we really got a fantastic start to our gardens! (and I forgot the good camera! ;)):

 

and a great start to our fairy village:

Tuesday we worked more on our fairy gardens, and began making fairy dolls before we headed down the trail modelling our fairy wings and using our more decorated collection bags to gather sweet items for the village:

After story, songs, snack etc. we worked hard on our village today:

 

Wednesday we continued with our gardens, and worked more on our village between lots of play, singing, stories, flower press making, and so on:

  

We also discovered the perfect jumping log to test our flying skills!

Thursday we counted tree rings, made more fairy people, explored with magnifying glasses,

 made fairy bubble wands, and practiced our log flying some more:

 

 Friday was an absolutely FUN filled day at the garden! It started off with 2 fairies bringing their pet goats:

  

After a little water coloring of our last fairy people (babies), we went down pretty quickly into the garden to do our story time and so on, so we could could have extra time to work on our village! 

We painted little signs so visitors (and there were  A LOT!) would know the names of our creations:

Toward the end of our time together we were joined by parents and families to see our work and celebrate with us!

 

We sang "If You're a Fairy and You Know It" one last time with real props (kids made up the lyrics). The fairies got their last special beads, and a fairy dust necklace to take home!

 

It really was a LOVELY week, thanks to all of your for being a part of it!