Our life sized shoe has been the highlight today! Friends have filled it with pillows, dishes, books and blankets.

For the last several afternoons, friends have been constructing a cardboard house with various materials. This experience culminated with a discussion yesterday about different types of houses (including our own) . We explored National Geographic photographs of different houses around the world.

To exercise fine motor muscles and hand/eye coordination we’ve been threading with yarn and cardboard.

What began as a threading exploration grew into a collage creation and then feather duster art connecting feathers to straws!

Simon shared his family collage with us! We learned about his family, special friends and also where they lived! He also shared pictures of himself as a baby!

We celebrated Simon and Oliver by singing and dancing to “We Are Family” (the Sister Sledge arrangement!)

We ended our creative music time with a ZigZag Meditation where friends created a zigzag formation with their bodies by laying heads on tummies!

For lunch we served refried rice with chicken and veggies, snap peas and applesauce. This afternoon we are indulging in a rare (but exciting!) movie fest with a popcorn snack!

Have a terrific weekend!

What started out as an afternoon stamp letter project, just kept growing…

and…

GROWING…

until.. it turned into a big tree for our family tree project!

Remember to bring in your child’s leaf to add to our tree!

This morning, as I (Tami) walked through the Wee Wee classroom with the paint rollers that I had dug up from their basement, Emergent Curriculum (and a silly grin) were the only two words I needed to say to explain everything.

From Wikipedia, Emergent curriculum is a way of planning curriculum based on the student’s interest and passions as well as the teacher’s. To plan an emergent curriculum requires observation, documentation, creative brainstorming, flexibility and patience. Rather than starting with a lesson plan which requires a “hook” to get the children interested, emergent curriculum starts with the children’s interests.

This morning, emerging from our Family Study, the teachers facilitated activities that allowed the children to follow their interests in the Old Lady and the Shoe fable by

• singing
• acting it out in costume
• converting their own shoes in to houses in the art room
• by creating a life sized shoe for dramatic play

For lunch today we had whole wheat tortillas with peanut butter, cantaloupe with blueberries and fresh zucchini from our garden. The kids at the round table all enjoyed the Lazy Susan that Miss Laurie brought in to help with passing of the bowls!

Today was another steamy morning! Instead of braving the heat today, we found many different ways to stay busy inside.

For an art exploration today, the kids used colorful circle screens to make eye catching glue collages. Some kids talked about their circle “families” and others created their pictures to be beautiful summer flowers. The younger children had a great time using the glue with the paint brushes and experimenting with the sticky properties of glue and how their hands stuck together.

Melinda led the group in a music/movement activity along to a CD (Lead Belly) that the Oliver and Simon brought to share. The music had very southern country/ folk style and the kids had to figure out how to move to this different style of music! Later, we had another music time that focused on using instruments. This time was started as an energetic spirited music time and ended in music meditation on individual rugs.

Storytime was found multiple times today in different rooms with different groups of children. One particularly fun moment for Taylor was during her BOB book reading time, she managed to gather a whole group of younger kids as an audience!

For lunch today we had chicken and rice with broccoli (prepared for us by Marty’s daughter Breania!), fresh mangos and banana, fresh sweet pea pods.

Today we welcomed Alma (our first WeeWee graduate) to Wee Friends!

Congratulations Alma, and Welcome!

This morning, a handful of friends traced alphabet letters with a marker. Other friends sorted heart, star and circle shapes into like groups. F.6.2 Combine strokes and shapes to represent letters. F.6.10 Use the correct grasp of writing tool. F.3.9 Sort a group of objects by more than one way. F.3.10 Name groups of objects.

Our girls (especially!) are spending a lot of time with the baby dolls, wrapping, feeding, washing, rocking and singing to them. F.3.28 Pretend to take care of a doll by feeding and other activities. F.3.29 Play the role of different family members through dramatic play. F.3.30 Discuss members of the family and their roles.

Shaving Cream!

All of our friends enjoyed getting ooey gooey creating art with shaving cream, tempera paints and construction paper. F.2.16 Demonstrate increasing skill in using different art materials. (e.g., paper, paint, clay, scraps, buttons). F.2.19 Use a variety of materials (e.g., crayons, paint, clay, markers) to create original work.

Before rest time we read Grandparents Around the World, discussing our own grandparents: their real names, what we call them and which country or state they live (lived) in. We asked “Do your grandparents live close or far?” F.3.32 Ask questions about families. F.5.4 Notice people’s skin and explore the differences. F.5.7 Discuss how grandparents and older people look and act different from children.

For lunch, we served whole wheat pizza with turkey, cheddar and cream cheese, watermelon and WF fresh lettuce with cucumber/carrots.

Have a great day!

“Bucket!!”

Several weeks ago, Nate and Owen (thanks, too, Aimee and Kevin!) brought Have You Filled Your Bucket Today? to Wee Friends! This “Guide to Daily Happiness for Kids” led us to a conversation about the ways we can treat others (and fill their buckets!) with kindness. After reading the story, each friend received a bucket with their name on it and then made a kindness deposit into a friend’s bucket. We decided whenever we saw these kindnesses occur, we would shout “bucket!” The buckets are hung in the art room so friends can make regular deposits.

Some older Wee Friends sorted and patterned old thread spools. A few younger friends created families of spools, identifying mother, father, baby etc….

Our Family Study is well underway and we would like to invite you to create a family collage with your child!
Today or tomorrow you will find a piece of construction paper in your child’s cubby upon which you can glue pictures of your family that your Wee Friend would like to share with his/her classmates. Some ideas to ignite your imaginations are: pictures of your house, beloved pets, favorite dollies, vacations, food-anything that says “this is me!”. Create them at your leisure over the next couple weeks and when you are ready, your child can bring them to school and share them!

DON’T FORGET TO BRING A SWIMSUIT FOR YOUR CHILD!

For lunch today we served whole wheat pasta with carrots, blueberries and yogurt/cinnamon dressing, corn and string cheese.