Bee Stormy-see if we care!

It was a stormy, windy and rainy day with Tiny Treks today.  We made thumbprint bees, butterflies and caterpillars and then put them in a flower garden on our paper with foam flowers and stamps.  We talked about how bees and wasps help pollinate our flowers and fruit trees.  We sang silly songs about "picking up baby bumblebees" and all agreed it wasn't a good idea!  On our hike we splashed through the swollen streams, lost boots and got wet feet.  But it was all in good fun!  Oh yes-and Pinkie the sow had 10 piglets!  They were soo cute.  We got to watch them nurse and hear them squeal.
We had a special honeycomb snack while we read Bee Wigged-a story about how to make friends and be yourself at the same time. 
We were all so glad that Tiny Treks got out into the storm!

The Spring Buds are here!

We looked at tree branches with buds from a cherry tree, an apple tree and some other leaves bursting out from the warm weather!  After talking about the buds each child got to make their own Popcorn tree!

We glued popcorn to a tree shape on construction paper and it looked just like the trees covered in blooms.  On our walk we got showered by petals from a blooming pink tree!  It looked a bit like snow coming down on our hair and shoulders! We read a book about spring and sang a song about a farm called Fiddle I fee.  It was a fun spring day.

Boating on Cottage Lake!

We had such fun today going out in a paddle boat!  Before we went out in the boat we talked about boat safety. We learned that you don't stand up in a boat and you don't make any sudden movements.  Also, that you don't jump from the boat into the water-at least not when the water is cold!  We all put on life vests-even Maddie the Monkey!  We paddled by geese and male and female mallard ducks.  We saw a cormorant spread its wings to dry them in the sun.  We played "eye spy" and saw the pink flowers on a flowering fruit tree.  We paddled all the way to the park and got to play on the playground for a while before we headed back for a snack of hard boiled eggs and popcorn.  One of the moms noticed that if you put the egg in the middle of a bowl of popcorn it looks like a nest.  Very cool!  We read 2 books, Pelle's New Suit about a boy in the spring, shearing a sheep to get wool for a new suit.  And also Seasons,  a book with gorgeous paintings about the seasons.   We all had such fun today on a Tiny Treks Excursion!

I Spy with a Spyglass!

We made spyglasses this week so we could go search in the forest for animals, bugs, spiderwebs and colors.  We also got to meet Frannie the Fox-a fun puppet who taught us a bit about foxes.  We pretended to be different animals; kangaroos jumping, bunnies hopping, horses galloping and fish swimming. Then we were off to see animals. Outside in the sun the turkeys were doing a mating dance.  The swish of their feathers as they opened sounded like a ladies fan! When we counted the eggs we saw chickens fighting over the eggs and pecking at them.  What were they doing? They were eating their own eggs! We played "I spy with my little eye something black and white."  The children had no problem finding the black and white chickens.  We played the game as we hiked on the trail along the stream.  We peaked into holes in the ground and wondered who might live in there-a rabbit?  A squirrel?  A fox?  or even a snake.  We ended the class playing I spy and looking closely at paintings of the Amazon Rainforest.

The Olympics come to Tiny Treks!

The Insignificant Elephant
This week Tiny Treks experienced its own version of the Olympics!  The kids had such fun first looking at pictures of different olympic events in the newspaper and talking about what they might have seen on tv.  For a craft we created the Olympic symbol using pipe cleaners and cheerios on paper.  Next we pretended to be skiiers and birds flying high in the sky like the ski jumpers.  Each trekkers got to have their own olympic schedule to complete which included sports such as "balancing on a log" and "jumping off a rock".  Everyone was successful in garnering their own Gold Medal at the end of class! We read a story about a quiet elephant who manages to win a medal after not being noticed for a long time. It was very exciting to wear a medal home.

Tiny Treks - A Redmond Parent and Child Outdoors Group (Redmond, WA) - Meetup.com

Tiny Treks - A Redmond Parent and Child Outdoors Group (Redmond, WA) - Meetup.com

Tiny Trekkers create their own tree!

This week was the culmination of 4 weeks of learning about trees: their trunks, their growth rings and their roots.  So, we made a tree out of a long, cardboard box.  We covered it in construction paper and attached "roots" to the bottom along the floor and "leaves" to the top.  It was fun using tape and gluesticks and paper together.  We danced around the tree singing our Tree song (see below) and then had circle time.  We sang a Diamond favorite "Each of us is a flower".  On our hike, we saw a tree that had just fallen on the path and got to see the roots up close!  We also played hide and seek from the moms.  We saw trees growing around stumps with roots WAY up in the air.  We ended our day eating "ants on a log" snacks and reading Going on a Bear Hunt, which brings us to the next 4 weeks session.  What lives in the forest?