Getting the soil ready for planting

The Wednesday Tiny Treks Outdoor Preschool Kids (TTOP) were very busy this week getting the soil ready for planting.  We had to pull weeds (the teachers had to get rid of nasty big thistles ) and we had to pull up the cardboard and burlap sacks used on the soil to keep out weeds.  Then we spent lots of time filling up buckets with water, digging in the soil, making hills to plant seeds on and for the most part, working as a team to get the work done!

Everyone was very busy filling up and dumping water.  It was a perfect thing to do in the 80 degree weather.  We even had some fun running under a "sprinkler" when Teacher Ann put the hose up high in the air.  The water felt so good!

After we cleaned the mud off all of the buckets and shovels we put some little strawberry plants in the ground.  Next week we'll put some seed in and mark where they are.  Each week we'll check back to see if our seeds have sprouted.  With our strawberry plants, we'll see if they have survived this heat!

"planting" sticks in the ground.  Will they grow?

The Monday class looked at the differences in the tails of white tailed deer, mule deer and black tailed deer then we played in the woods looking for deer footprints. We made some if our own by the stream using potato molds.

We spent at lot of time planting sticks in the ground and wondering if they would grow. It was lots of fun using cups to take water from the beach to water our sticks in. Sometimes the water in our cup didn't make it to the stick especially if we squeezed the paper cup to hard on the way. We will check to see if our sticks have grown next week. 

Story time by the fire pit.

Listening to stories while having snack.

An overview of the class:
The kids are enjoying getting to know each other this session.  There are 9 kids on Mondays and 8 kids on Wednesdays.   We are working on learning to sit and listen during circle time, on raising hands before we speak in the circle, listening to stories and staying together as a group.  We are learning  how to be a "Bungy Kid".  This means that the children  are learning how far they can wander from the group before they need to come back.  Our safety rules are that they always must be able to see one of the teachers.  If their name is called, they must come right back. They can play with sticks but must watch where the stick is in space so they don't hit anyone.  We'll be working on all of these safety rules as the session continues.