Sign up now for Summer Camps led by Teacher Ann!

Looking into a pond to see if we can see the fish or frogs.

Hiking through the brush on a Tiny Trek adventure.

Teacher Ann will be leading Redmond Parks and Recreation Summer Camps through her business, Tiny Treks at Farrel-McWhirter Park!
There are 2 kinds of camps:

• Parent and child camps (you get to come along and be with your child for the camp) 
• Drop off camps-very similar to TOP!

The parent/child camps are for children aged 2-6 years old.  So you can bring your older and younger children along! You may bring your child under the age of 2 for free. 
The drop off camps are for children 4-7 years of age.

Tiny Trek Camps at Redmond Parks and Recreation

Don't miss out on this fun summer opportunity-sign up while there are still spots!
Invite your child's friends to experience nature a new way-and carpool for your summer camp experience!

Hope to see you this summer!

Teacher Ann


Rain or Sun, We ALWAYS have fun at Tiny Treks

Let me know if you have any questions!

N is for Nest and Nice day!

The Yellow troup made a round nest and pretended to be baby birds-here they are asleep!

The yellow group "caught" fish and then "cooked" them on a stump for dinner!

What a great day today!  We began the day in the meadow making a pattern with our pennies-yellow, blue, yellow, blue.  We will be continuing to teach patterns in different ways.  You can work on patterns at home too.  We will be practicing with using nature items to make patterns-such as pinecone, stick, pinecone, stick.  This is an important pre-kindergarten concept.

Yellow group today began by making a giant nest and pretending to be baby birds.  The mama bird (teacher Ann) brought pretend worms, bugs and berries to the baby birds to feed them.  Then they learned how to fly by running around the nest and eventually made their own nests and had their own families.  The kids really enjoyed pretending to be birds!  Then we stopped at our favorite fishing hole and everyone caught fish and then "cooked" them up on a stump.  After we pretended to eat the fish we had snack and stories in the woods.

The blue group went on a great hike today.  At each trail sign they stopped and looked for "N"'s.  Teacher Jen was so proud that the group could hike so far and get along together so well! 

We were able to eat lunch in the sun again today.  Yippee! 

Remember that there is no TOP until April 12th so Teachers Jen and Ann can have spring break with their families.  Have fun in the sun!  (or rain!) 

A sunny funny "N" day!

We started off the day kicking balls in the meadow in the sun.  Some of the kids were balancing and playing with the stepping cups.  During circle time we read about birds and their nests.  We  spoke at length about the birds coming back because it is spring!  Then it was time to explore!

The yellow group began their hike by exploring the area by the stream and trying to slide down a tree trunk.  It didn't really slide anymore since all of the moss has been rubbed off!  Then we hiked till we found a newly fallen tree.  It was really interesting to see the inside of the tree and smell the fresh pine scent of the wood.  We decided to have snack there and then spent a lot of time climbing and walking down the long logs. 

The blue group did such a long hike that Luca's legs got all tired out!  As they walked they found a fishing hole.  Teacher Jen was able to produce out of her magical backpack enough string for 2 fishing poles which the kids shared.  They had so much fun that they barely made it back in time for lunch!

At lunch it was time to celebrate Jayden's birthdday with a fun Dr. Suess book about reptiles and a yummy, gummy treat.  Thanks Jayden!

News:  Today is the first day you can sign up for the fall.  I understand there are already a number of people signed up.  Don't miss your chance to be in TOP next year!

Redmond Parks and Recreation

Marbles and the Sun!

Today was sunny enough to have a picnic out by the tire swings.  So we loaded up the wagon and took turns pulling it out to meadow and the sun.  It was so lovely to be warm that we swang and hunted for treasures in the sand for quite a while.  Some of the kids sorted their beads by colors while others made castles and streams in the pebbles.

After lunch under the big trees, we went to see how the streams were doing.  Some of the kids lined up to throw rocks into the stream and watch them splash.  Blue group got to pull the wagon back to the preschool pick up spot while yellow group walked across the meadow.  I forgot to mention that we played with marbles while the group gathered at the beginning of class. 

Next week is "N" week.  We will be teaching the kids about Nettles.  What other "N" words can they think of?

"M" is for the many things a mole does!

This week is "M" week.  We started by reading about moles.  Last week we looked closely at the molehills so today we took out shovels and rakes and went poking and digging about into the molehills.  We found some worms, grass roots and mole holes.  It was fun to dig down deep and move the dirt around.

We were happy to greet our new TOP students, Jakey and Luca.  They were quickly integrated into the yellow and blue groups and were soon happily digging and running along with the other TOP kids.  We split up into color groups for our hikes.  The yellow group showed Jakey the fun of walking on the logs and jumping off.  This is great for balance, strength and ....fun!  The blue group hiked to a special spot under the trees where there are logs across the stream.  They watched how quickly the fast flowing stream took their wood chips down the current. 

Next fall TOP Program:
Some of you are asking about next year.  TOP will operate on the same schedule next year.
Sign ups begin on March 22nd-at that time sign up is OPEN TO THE PUBLIC!
There is no priority for past TOP kids for next year.  But since this date is not publicized anywhere-you should have no problem getting into next year's class.
You could sign up online after midnight or call the front desk at 8am March 22nd, 2011.
425-556-2300

A sunny balmy March day!

What a surprise after the huge rain yesterday to have sunny and balmy weather!  We decided that today was a perfect day to use the wagon and pull it into the woods for a picnic lunch.  Everyone was very excited to take their turn to pull the wagon and later to help push.  It was great cooperative play, working together to pull and push the wagon over rocks and branches on the trail.  Some people walked ahead and moved out debris to make way for our wagon. 

This was our longest hike ever!  You might have sleepy  kids tonight!  We walked all the way over to Juel Park and saw the beginning of their garden there.  We talked about the compost pile we saw next to the garden beds and what that was for.  During lunch we talked about all of the animals that live in the woods and how that is their home, even though we can't see them.  We listened closely to the sounds in the woods.  We heard frogs croaking,  the wind in the trees and some of us heard a woodpecker.  We read a funny story about mice called Morace Horace but mostly Delores.

Today was the last day of this session.  Tuesday we will be welcoming 2 new students.  It will be fun to show our new students how TOP works! 

Remember that we will have 2 more weeks of preschool and then 2 weeks off for spring break. Those dates are:

March 28-April 7th for days off of preschool.  We'll be back on April 12th ready for spring!

Ladybug' spots and molehills!



Teacher Jen and the kids checking out how much water is in the stream today.

We only had 8 kids today-lots of winter sickness out there-so we stayed as a big group and hiked all over the park. We are thrilled at how strong the kids are now.  They are able and happy to hike longer distances than previously and also are ready to explore new spots in the woods.

We began the day talking about the letter "L".  We colored Ladybug and Leaf pictures and then spent a long time working on our math skills using a ladybug and her spots.  The kids did very well counting up to 10 and even learning some subtraction skills.

Then we walked over to the nest the kids created out on the lawn.  When we were out there we noticed that the mole hills looked like ladybug spots!  So we counted them and talked about how moles make their hills!  We ended up jumping from mole hill to mole hill, counting as we went.

Soon it was snack time in the woods with 2 stories about bears and other animals.  The kids were really working on their balancing skills by walking on logs and jumping from bench to bench.  The TOP kids large motor skills have come a long way since the beginning of school!

We still had a long hike ahead of us and we played hide and seek along the way.  Everyone wanted to keep going but it was time to head back for lunch.  We decided that Thursday we will hike to a new destination...Juel Park!

Heads up:  This Thursday is the last day of this session.  We will be welcoming 2 new students to our school next week. 
Also-TOP will be closed for the weeks of March 28-April 8th for Teacher Ann and Teacher Jen to have spring break with their families.

Fun with the letter "L"!

Teacher Jen leading the class on the trail.

We started a little bit on Letter "L" this week and we'll be continuing with "L" next week.  See how many words you can think of for the letter "L"!  Ladybug, laughter, love....its a good letter!  We began circle time inside this week and then hiked throughout the park on Tuesday.  Thursday we played  alot with what was left of the snow and then everyone was hungry, so we at lunch at 11:15 and then hiked right up until 12:30.  What fun!