Today Lisa brought in a fabulous counting book called Elevator Magic. Using the message board, she created a Wee Tower with 10 floors and an elevator. As she read the book aloud, friends counted their way down from the top floor to the bottom floor. Afterwards, Laurie worked with a few friends to identify how many syllables were in each number when the number was spelled out. (ex: one (1), seven (2).

At the art table, we filled several trays with sand. Lisa held up a letter and friends traced that letter in the sand.

The next sensorial delight was the purple Play-Doh. We set out lower case letters for friends to work with, as well as cookie cutters and various Play-Doh tools.

Our princesses requested a round of acting out “Malificent”. We gathered in the reading area and looked through every fairy tale book we have to discover other stories with a villainous character. When The Three Little Pigs was pulled out, friends squealed (heehee!) with delight and we discussed first, what a villain is and secondly, who the villain is in the story. We read The Three Little Pigs, the kids cast themselves and we acted it out.

Afterwards, we found another villainous character in Jack and the Beanstalk. We read through it, friends cast themselves and away we went to the habitrail (the beanstalk) and acted out an original version of the story that involved a princess in captivity, two Giants, two Geese and a sparkly golden egg!

Later, we created a story board where friends drew the part of the story that made the biggest impression.

Our Wee Sprouts today are green pea pods and carrots. Breakfast was Corn Chex and clementines. For lunch Tami prepared cream cheese and melted cheddar cheese on whole grain tortillas, applesauce and cucumber slices. Snack will be cheese sticks and pretzels.

Enjoy your day!

The day started on a happy note!

Note from Tami about swimming…

“Today we started our spring swimming lesson session at the YMCA. Because our size is so large, it took some manipulating to make us fit with the YMCA for this session and this meant it happened literally at the last moment, that our kids were able to be in the Tuesday class that we started today. I apologize for the last minute notice! To be clear, I only contacted families that I invited to attend this session.

We cannot take every child to swim lessons, so we rotate the children. Please understand that every effort is made to keep it balanced and that I understand that most families really do want this opportunity. I will be contacting families in the next few weeks about signing up for the Spring 2 class that starts mid-April. Back to Laurie:)…”

While our swimmers were away, our friends explored a variety of sensory/fine motor experiences. First, we set out trays with wooden clothespins, pipe cleaners and coffee filters. Friends practiced opening and closing the pins, clipping them to coffee filters and sticking pipe cleaners in one of the few holes on the clothespin.

Next, we placed Lisa’s flower bouquet (thanks, Lisa!) on the table with scissors, construction paper, glue and glass vases. Friends cut all parts of the flower, glued flower parts to the paper, and stuffed flower petals and leaves into the vase.

Marta arrived from Florida with a bag full of shells. A few friends joined her as she sorted the shell pieces and cooked a hot cake.

FAB – Week of 2/27 – Literacy: K.1.14-Match all consonant sounds (mad, red, pin, top, sun) to appropriate letters. K.1.7-Listen to two or three phonemes (sounds) when they are read aloud, and tell the number of sounds heard, whether they are the same or different. Math: K.1.7-Find the number that is one more or one less than any whole number* up to 10. K.1.6-Count, recognize, represent, name and order a number of objects (up to 10). K.1.8-Use correctly the words one/many, none/some/all, more/less, and most/least.

Our Wee Sprouts today are green pea pods and carrots. For breakfast, Lisa served English muffins with peanut butter and pear slices. Lunch was melted ham and cheese on whole wheat tortillas, peas and more pear slices! Snack will be yogurt and apples.

Have a great day!

This morning, gymnasts worked on the climbing ladder and incline mat. They used the rope ladder to climb to the top of the bus and touch the ceiling. They learned glide and tuck swings and on the incline mat, did forward and backward rolls.

Last Friday afternoon, Simon brought in face paints! Wee Friends flipped through many pages of faces, chose which design they wanted and the teachers got to work painting! Kai has requested that every Friday afternoon be a face painting afternoon!

While the older Wee Friends were on the Blue Bus, our smaller Wee Friends worked with wine corks. First, friends counted and sorted the corks into baskets. Next, they used ink pads to stamp the corks onto construction paper. We they discovered that the corks did not hold ink so well, they switched to paint. Older friends joined in when they returned from the Blue Bus.

Ada, Simon and a few other friends worked with the mathematical concept: more than/less than. Using a message board filled with numbers, we first explored which numbers were ‘1 more than’ and ‘1 less than’. Then we matched our small number boards the corresponding written number. After that, we sorted piles of oranges according to the number board we chose. This exercise turned into a shape exploration with Simon and Ada stacking/balancing and arranging oranges artfully (a shark!). When the fruit came out, more friends joined in to see what was being worked on.

Over the weekend, Chase and Kaitlyn created a castle at the workbench. Tami set this out and a small group of friends sat down to cut and create felt clothes for the wooden clothespin people.

Elliott picked out two rhythm sticks and started singing “Twinkle Twinkle” tapping the sticks in an even rhythm as he sang. Other friends joined in and we continued exploring rhythm by singing two nursery rhymes and comparing which was faster/slower by the way we tapped our sticks. We played “Puff the Magic Dragon” and let the CD run. When an instrumental arrangement of a Beauty and the Beast song came on, a group of princesses gathered on the rug and danced as gracefully and slowly as the music they were listening to.

Our Wee Sprouts today are green pea pods. Breakfast was Kix and raisins. For lunch we served whole wheat penne pasta with ricotta cheese, mixed veggies and fruit salad (pineapple/apples). For snack, we will serve honey graham crackers and clementines.

Have a great day!

Happy Birthday, Nate!

After breakfast this morning, friends gathered ’round the art table to create a birthday card for Nate, who turns three tomorrow!

In the spirit of community building (and spreading simple Joy!!), a small group of friends learned, rehearsed and performed a Wee Friend’s original song “Jackhammer Joy” for the nice gentlemen who have been working on our street all week.

“What’s more fun than a rock? What’s more fun than a block? What’s more fun than 1-2-3?

Jackhammer Joy!

Jackhammer Joy! Jackhammer Joy, Jack-Jack Hammer Joy!” (repeat)

Back inside, Lisa guided an exploration with feathers and straws. Friends took turns sticking feathers into straws and then blowing them out. There were many observations: Umi: “The feathers feel soft. Pink is my favorite.” Ada: “I like blowing them!” Kai: “They feel soft and wiggly!” They observed how far or how near they flew. Alexandra shared “They are cuddly!”

At the workbench, Finn, Stephen and Nate set out rocks and were painting them with brushes. We invited them to bring their materials to two sensory bin, one filled with warm water and the other,warm sudsy water. They painted, dropped rocks back and forth between bins, and squeezed the paint brush bristles.

Elliott, Umi and Ada joined their friends in the exploration.

Melinda played several rounds of Crazy Eights and Simon and Ada took turns being the dealer in a few rounds of Zingo. Nate and Finn built a monster cave to protect themselves from a monster.

Annie and Jane organized and elaborate classroom, acting out the role of teacher. Later, Macy joined in as the baby sister. There was a lot of talking on the cell phones.

We created music, first by practicing rhythm stick/drumming dynamics. We beat slowly/quickly-softly/medium/loudly and then moved our sticks to Hap Palmer’s “Tap Your Sticks”. Then, we scrubbed our body parts with sponge balls while dancing to David Chicken’s “Bubbles in the Bathtub”. We ended our creative music time by snuggling near something we love and listening to Donny Osmond’s “Puppy Love”.

Our Wee Sprouts today are carrots and grape tomatoes. Breakfast was Kashi cereal and pear slices. For lunch, Lisa made a delicious scrambled egg casserole, corn and bananas. For snack, we will serve oranges, crackers and chocolate coins in honor of Nate’s Big #3!!!!

Have a peaceful weekend.

Our Wee Sprouts today are cucumbers, broccoli and cherry tomatoes. For breakfast, Melinda served whole wheat muffins with cinnamon sugar and oranges. Lunch is pizza sandwiches on whole wheat tortillas, roasted green beans and peach/banana fruit salad.

Have a great day!