Sticks and Stones-for fun!

Sometimes it takes a group to carry a stick this big!  We had one child with a big stick and other kids feeling left out of the stick world.  When this stick was noticed in the stream-it just had to come out. Since it was 15 feet long it took 3 of them to carry it. The three of them lugged it all the way to the deer sanctuary and then deposited it on top of another stick pile they made called "the bench".

In the deer sanctuary we found deer scat (poop) and deer hoof prints.  I guess they really do use it as a sanctuary like the sign says!

Along the way we celebrated the Olympics by balancing and jumping off logs, finding spider webs, jumping in a puddle and running around trees.  There was also a rousing game of hide and seek with some big tic tac toe pieces I found in my garage!  Then some regular hide and seek. All to soon it was lunch and stories time.  And we got to eat in the sun.  Ahhhh!

Splosh!

Mondays have a theme of wood and trees.  We had a lot of fun talking about wood, and playing a memory game of what's in the bag? Can we remember? 

What are the things made of? What are trees used for?

Then we found the mud! We splashed, we mixed, we gave bits of wood a mud bath, we dug.  We put our fingers in it and sat in it. We then had to wash ourselves off with the hose!

We were having too much fun in the mud to find sticks to paint,  so we will do our stick craft next week.

Splosh!

And that's the way we roll at Tiny Treks.  If there is something happening nature-wise that we didn't plan for or the kids find something they want to focus on-our planning goes out the window.  We can always study about wood, but we can't always squish in the mud!

Sticks, floods and make believe

We've had lots of rain this past week and today we found Bear Creek overflowing it's bank and up onto the trails we usually take at Tiny Treks Outdoor Preschool.  We had to turn around and try another route.  That ended up being flooded too, but just the right amount to walk through.  Pretty exciting stuff.  We had to be very careful since this walkway can get very slippery with moss.

The Tiny Trekkers had a special day today learning about the Olympics.  We jumped off rocks, ran around trees and pitched rocks into a hole for some of the events.  Another event was to "fly like a bird."  Some of us kept up playing birds while others became other flying types: Pegasus and a flying princess. 

These 3 Trekkers decided that they needed a special nest for their pony and princess.  One of the "bald eagles" was willing to help move the sticks needed for their structure. 

I'm always fascinated when kids spontaneously help each other.  They are usually eager to help out and enjoy the process of who will walk with the stick and who will carry. As you can see, one of the helpers got the stick between his legs and it was quite awkward to walk.  But he still made it happen.

Snow at TTOP and Keep It Simple Farm!

Weren't we lucky to still have some snow left on Monday for Tiny Treks?   The kids found duck, cat  and raccoon prints in the snow and then enjoyed making some of their own.

With cups and spoons and some snow-anything is possible.  The kids enjoyed pretending in the snow and exploring the back woods together. The craft was a snowman made with finger paint.  Some of the kids weren't very comfortable getting their fingers dirty-so we'll be spending more time on that as the classes proceed. 

There is a make up class on Monday for the missed Monday class.  See you there!  Teacher Ann