Hands, tall grass and tadpoles

The joy of watching the kids become good friends and chatting while hiking and exploring. We are such lucky teachers! We've had an amazing spring with real heat making all of the plants at Farrel McWhirter grow to amazing heights!  The grass is already over the kids's heads and they had such fun today walking through it.

 But we were headed to one of our furthest destinations today; the forest at Juel Park.  If you haven't seen the wonderful wetlands there, it is worth a saturday visit.  We told the kids to stay out of the water in order to look for tadpoles and to not disturb the animals living in the slow moving and shallow stream.  Pretty soon Conrad spotted a frog hiding under a log. Most of us peered under the log and saw it's hiding place.

We also watched a few tadpoles darting through the water, also hiding from our shadows.  We sang "One Little Speckled Frog" while we waited for them to show themselves. We ate a quick lunch on the side of the forest and then high-tailed it back to meet the parents by 1230pm.

What I noticed today:
Kids were very attached to their friends.
Some kids were very intent on pulling the wagon and very proud of their work.  (Clara, Sruthi)
Some kids got hot but no one complained that it was too far to walk.
Everyone was very busy and intent on what they wanted to see, look at and explore.
Everyone was careful to stay out of the stream and jumped across the water when they wanted to cross it.
Some people remembered going to Juel Park in the beginning of the year-others were amazed and said they had never seen it before.  (everyone had but September is a long time ago when you are little!)


Parents:  It is almost the end of the year!  What an incredible year it has been!  Roo and I have watched these kids become avid, eager explorers.  A wonder to behold!