Summaries of Winnetka Fall and Winter Classes 2009/10

1/27/10
Winnetka Class Teacher Carrie's Weekly Update:
AM CLASS
We had another wonderful day at Tiny Treks!
We began outside, on the lawn of the Community House, with hunt for 3
polar bears and 1 penguin (like an Easter Egg hunt). The boys also
played a little while outside. We then went inside and talked about
polar bears and penguins. The boys learned that polar bears live
near/on the north pole and penguins live only in the southern
hemisphere. We drew pictures of the Earth and drew a polar bear at
the north pole and a penguin at the south pole. We then talked about
what penguins and polar bears eat. Polar bears are, of course, meat
eaters. So, I then asked them a bit of a trick question. I asked
them if polar bears eat penguins. The answer is no because they would
never meet because of where they live (polar bears in the northern
hemisphere and penguins in the southern hemisphere).
I read them a book titled "Max & Mo Let's Make a Snowman!" So, then
we made snowmen with a toilet paper roll and construction paper.
While the boys ate lunch, I read "How I Became a Pirate" and "Pirates
Don't Change Diapers".

PM CLASS
We had another wonderful day at Tiny Treks!
We began outside, on the lawn of the Community House, with hunt for 3
polar bears and 1 penguin (like an Easter Egg hunt). The boys also
played a little while outside. We then went inside and talked about
polar bears and penguins. The boys learned that polar bears live
near/on the north pole and penguins live only in the southern
hemisphere. We drew pictures of the Earth and drew a polar bear at
the north pole and a penguin at the south pole. We then talked about
what penguins and polar bears eat. Polar bears are, of course, meat
eaters. So, I then asked them a bit of a trick question. I asked
them if polar bears eat penguins. The answer is no because they would
never meet because of where they live (polar bears in the northern
hemisphere and penguins in the southern hemisphere).
We also made penguin puppets with paper bags and construction paper.
I read the boys 2 books today: "How I Became a Pirate" and "Pirates
Don't Change Diapers".

1/23/10
AM and PM just reverse the order of the day.
We had another great day at Tiny Treks.
We started the class outside on the lawn of the Community House. The boys blew bubbles (fun in warm and cold weather). They had so much fun watching how high the bubbles would fly. They also enjoyed trying to catch them. We then went inside and I read a book called "Max & Mo, Let's Make a Snowman!" So, after we read the book, we made a snowman! Then I read a few more books. The boys finished the class building a wonderful LEGO scene.
1/14/10
A We had a great day at Tiny Treks! What great weather we had.
We started outside and stayed outside for about an hour. First, the
boys just played on the lawn of the Community House enjoying the snow. Then, we walked along the Green Bay Trail looking for animal prints in the snow.
When we returned to the Community House, we did an art project. We talked about primary colors and how other colors are made by combining the primary colors. We used Tub Tints (by Crayola) to make different colored waters. We had 3 primary colors: blue, red, and yellow. Then we talked about how to make green (yellow + blue), orange (yellow + red), and purple (red + blue). So we had 6 different cups of colored water. The kids loved dropping the tub tints into the water and watching the water change color, especially when 2 different colors were combining. We made snowflakes out of coffee filters and then dipped the "snowflakes" into the cups of colored water to color the snowflakes.
Next, we had lunch. While they ate, I read a few books. First was
Animals Should Definitely Not Wear Clothing. Next was a LEGO book.
I started a second LEGO book but ran out of time. The boys LOVE the LEGO books!
We had a great day.

PM Class
We had a great day at Tiny Treks! What great weather we had.
We started outside and stayed outside for over an hour. We walked
to the park and had a lot of fun playing on the playground.
When we returned to the Community House, we did an art project. We talked about primary colors and how other colors are made by combining the primary colors. We used Tub Tints (by Crayola) to make different colored waters. We had 3 primary colors: blue, red, and yellow. Then we talked about how to make green (yellow + blue), orange (yellow + red), and purple (red + blue). So we had 6 different cups of colored water. The kids loved dropping the tub tints into the water and watching the water change color, especially when 2 different colors were combining. We made snowflakes out of coffee filters and then dipped the "snowflakes" into the cups of colored water to color the snowflakes.
Next, we had snack. While they ate, I read a few books. First was Animals Should Definitely Not Wear Clothing. Then I read two different LEGO books. The boys really enjoy the LEGO books.
We had a great day.
Carrie

12/9/09
Today:
Both classes were able to spend some time outside first thing during
class. The AM class just played in front of the Community House.
The PM class took a little walk on the Green Bay Trail. The PM class counted bird nests, saw some animal tracks in the snow, and splashed
in lots of puddles. Both classes had snack and book time. Then we
did a craft. It started as a snowman picture but the children all got very creative and made some wonderful pictures.

10/28/09
Today was another great weather day for Tiny Treks. Wednesdays seem to be great days to be outside as it seems not to rain on Wednesdays.

AM class - we went on a worm hunt around the Community House and on the Green Bay Trail. Unfortunately, we only found 2 worms. While on the Green Bay Trail, we noticed how easy it is to see nests in trees now that the leaves are down. We ate snack and read stories. Then, we did a Halloween craft by turning a lollipop into a ghost.

PM class - we looked for worms but only found one. We went on the Green Bay Trail to look at all of the nests in the trees. They are so easy to spot now that all of the leaves are down. We counted 16 nests on our short walk. We ate snack and read stories. The PM class did 2 Halloween projects. One was turning a lollipop into a ghost and the second was making a jack-o'-lantern out of a plate.

Have a wonderful Halloween!

10/3/09
We had another great week at Tiny Treks. We explored the beach front and walked to the tower before Tower Road Beach. We now have our special Tiny Treks climbing tree and we are going to study all the changes of our tree throughout the year. We are hoping the great Wednesday weather continues. This week we will venture down to Tower Road Beach and explore the park and hiking path. If the weather does not cooperate we will do some cooking projects inside and still get outside for part of the class. Dress for the weather please.
Thanks for the great snacks and water bottles.

9/23/09
We had a wonderful day today at Tiny Treks. It was very nice that the weather cooperated with us.
We began class inside today so the children could make and decorate paper airplanes. Then, we walked to the park looking for "signs of fall." We saw lots of leaves changing colors from green to yellow, red, orange, and brown. We also saw a lot of leaves on the ground as they had already fallen from the trees.
On our walk, we saw a lot of bees and many acorns. We discussed how the animals would collect acorns and other nuts to store in their homes for the long winter.

While at the park, we flew our paper airplanes and tried to catch butterflies with our butterfly nets. The morning class chased a squirrel and got a lot closer than I thought they'd be able to! The squirrel was busy collecting nuts and I don't think it realized that a bunch of boys was running after it!
I read two books to the children today while they ate their snack. I read "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" and "Where the Wild Things Are."

We had another wonderful day today.

9/16/09
We began class today decorating buckets that each child will be able to use for class and take home at the end of the session. The children like to use their works of art in different ways.
Some liked using it for building sand castles; some liked using it to collect treasures like rocks and bird feathers. The lake was very rough today with big waves. We even saw a few surfers riding the waves. The children especially liked watching the waves slam into the barrier (I think of it as the lookout area - where you can walk out into the lake) and watching the water spray high into the air. I read books to the children as they ate their snacks. The AM class heard One Hungry Monster and Click Clack Moo Cows that Type. The PM class only heard One Hungry Monster as they ate quicker and wanted to get to playing in the sand quicker. All the children enjoyed the book(s).
We had a wonderful day. I look forward to next week. I hope we can have some more of this beautiful weather.

9/10/09

Dear Tiny Treks Families,
We had a beautiful day yesterday with your adorable children. We loved getting to know the classes and the kids. We had a great time hiking down to the beach and exploring spider webs, animal poop, animal tracks, butterflies, mushrooms and so much more on our way to the beach. Tiny Treks is a time for your children to literally stop and smell the roses, for the children to take time out of their busy lives and simply relax. We were teaching class yesterday and as we were examining a mushroom a little girl said, "This is neat, but hurry we don't want to waste time." I turned to her and said, "Tiny Treks is about making time to just be, to explore, to look around using all of our senses. We have time." You could see her visibly relax and she was the most engaged child the rest of the session. It simply reminded me of all of the running around we do and all of the inside classes with so many behavioral expectations our children our involved in. Tiny Treks allows the children to be, to explore, to join in when they want and to just observe when they want. We are looking forward to a great year of exploration.
One of the really neat things we were able to also do yesterday was to "save" the butterflies. There were several alive butterflies that were being washed away and we were able to scoop them up from the water and place them gently on a rock. We sat and observed them slowly flapping their gorgeous wings dry as they struggled to survive. We had the chance to watch one of them fly away. It was very exciting.

Please make sure you pack a water bottle and a healthy snack for class. We will go to the beach again this week meandering a different way. We will have our Tiny Treks wagon so the kids can have their backpacks with a change of clothes in case they get wet or they can wear bathing suits.