The bikes were popular this morning. David and Ruby gave one of the big bikes a try. It’s still a bit too big for them. Franklin was clever and caught a ride with one of the older kids!

One of our older friends showed us her cartwheel skills. Ruby was very impressed and did some gymnastics of her own.

Franklin loves airplanes and gets excited every time one flies over. His reactions always get everyone else excited too!

Mack had the classroom to himself while his other friends napped. He played with one of his favorite toys, the zany zoo, and then had a blast trying on the construction hat!

We spent time coloring together in the kitchen. Some of our friends showed interest in learning the colors of the crayons. Then we headed back outside to play!

Breakfast was toast with butter and bananas. Wee sprout was peas. Lunch consisted of farm fresh eggs, bread, cantaloupe, and peas. Afternoon snack was wheat crackers with block cheese.

Link to photos: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIulhpJR_8fEAI26yew7dw

Have a great night!

Amanda

Happy Wednesday!

A story was read this morning titled, “The Name Quilt”. The story was about a little girl and her grandmother. There was a special quilt in their family that was full of names which prompted stories about these family members/friends. Every time the little girl pointed to a name on the quilt, her grandmother would tell her an interesting story.

After we finished the story, we took the book over to the art table where we started construction of our own name quilt! Children picked a color of construction paper that they wanted and decorated their quilt square however they so chose. Once all of our quilt squares get completed, we’re going to start construction!

How this fits into our FAB for the week:

Once the story was done, we talked about different traditions that families have; how no one is the same; and how families are completely unique. This conversation prompted a couple of friends to share things that their family does!

As we headed outside, Lulu and Max set off on a boat to Mishawaka, Indiana! Lulu let everyone know that the boat ride was going to take 48 hours!

The trailer bike was popular this morning as friends took turns riding it and giving rides to younger friends. Talk about impressive balancing skills.. .

Before lunch was ready, we started a game of hide and seek. We all took turns counting and friends enjoyed finding new places to hide with their peers.

We sat at the art table and just spent some time together before the lunch bell rang.

Large group/kindergarten:

Before I read the story, “My Dadima Wears A Sari,” I brought up the topic of culture and religion and how it varies between families. When I said religion, I had many friends raise their hand with comments that related to church. I heard:

“My family and I go to church every Sunday!”

“We never go to church.”

“My church gives out presents.”

After discussing varying religions, I brought up the word culture again. Daniel said, “What’s culture?” In a simplistic way, I said it’s what a group or family believes.

We read, “My Dadima Wears A Sari.” We quickly found out that ‘Dadima’ means grandma. After a couple of pages, I asked, “What’s a sari?” Using the clues from the words and pictures, a friend shouted out, “It’s that thing that Dadima is wearing.”

We learned what a sari is and who wears it. Indian women wear a sari so we got out the map and looked to see where India is compared to the United States.

There are many uses for a sari that we learned about in the book.

After we finished the story, we came up with different ways we would use a sari. The consensus was that it would be lovely to wear it as camouflage!

“It would be cool if we could have something like that to wear!”

We’re halfway through a fabulous week. Here’s to having an awesome Thursday and Friday!

Breakfast– Whole grain oatmeal with banana.

Lunch– Scrambled organic eggs, whole wheat bread, fresh PPC cantaloupe, and our very own cucumbers!

PM snack– Popcorn and peaches/banana.

Wee Sprout– PPC peppers.

Have a lovely night!

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 8/17

Our friends couldn’t wait to get into the wet sandbox! They all started (and a few of them ended) their outside time there.

We are big fans of our sandbox, and not just because playing in the sand is fun!

Sand play can help children develop social skills like problem solving, sharing, and communicating. By working together in a common play space, children learn empathy and how to recognize and understand the perspectives of the other children while working together and sharing sand tools.

There are lots of ways in which mathematical concepts can be developed during sand play by providing children with containers in a variety of shapes and sizes. As the children play with these things in the sand, it helps to teach children about ideas such as: more than, less than, equal, many and few, empty and full, and heavy and light.

Sand play promotes physical development. Large muscle skills develop as children dig, pour, sift, and scoop. Hand-eye coordination and small muscle control improve as children learn to manipulate sand accessories.

Breakfast was Whole Grain Cheerios and oranges. Lunch consisted of whole wheat flat bread with cheese, strawberries, and corn. Afternoon snack was wheat crackers and cream cheese.

Link to photos: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIulhpEQsyOhT-qfous5DQ

Have a great night!

Amanda

Hello!

Differing kinds of tracks took up the beginning of our morning! The wooden train tracks and the big yellow tracks were the most popular. “We have to make big turns so that the trains can go fast!”, said a friend.

Play dough was requested so Clara got out the play dough that smells like peppermint. Children took turns at the table, manipulating the play dough into many different forms. A lot of children used the rolling pins in some fashion. Jackson and Clara used the rolling pin to flatten their block of play dough as thin as they could.

Not only does play dough allow us to work on our fine motor skills but so many different creations are created! Today, we had a heart, pancake, and wall built!

Since it was Tuesday (our muffin day), we made our own homemade apple-oatmeal muffins!

First, I told everyone that was around the island that we were going to have to double the recipe. If we just made the regular recipe, it would’ve yielded 12 muffins. I asked if that would’ve been enough for our class. Clara shouted, “No! Not everyone would be able to have one!” So I brought up the word “doubling”.

I took two muffin tins and we counted all of the circles. We came to the number 24! After measuring the dry and wet ingredients individually, we mixed them together!

Daniel used the word, “brilliant” once he tasted his muffin. They appeared to be a hit!

In large group today, we read the sequel to ‘Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs’ which is called, ‘Pickles to Pittsburgh’. We observed their neighborhood throughout the story. Many questions like; “How is the food falling from the sky?” and “What if our neighborhood looked like that?” were asked.

After we read the story, we brainstormed as a group. Friends took turns raising their hands, telling the group what they see in their neighborhood. I told them that I live in an apartment complex which may yield different observations. I commented that I see a lot of cars where I live because there are no garages. “So you have to leave your car outside every night?!”

We talked about the flooding that happened overnight. There were some children that saw standing water while others didn’t. As a group, friends started a discussion about why some neighborhoods have certain things while others don’t, such as trees and cars.

Breakfast– Whole grain cheerios and PPC peaches.

Lunch– Whole wheat pasta with butter and shredded chicken, PPC strawberries, and green beans/cherry tomatoes.

PM snack– Homemade apple-oatmeal muffins and block cheddar cheese.

Wee Sprouts– Cherry tomatoes from PPC.

Have a terrific evening!

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 8/16

Happy Monday!

It was a full, active day here at Wee Friends!

We started off by welcoming our newest Wee Friender’s, Brycen and Calix!

Our FAB for the week:

Social Studies: K.3.6 Identify and compare similarities and differences in families, classmates, neighbors and neighborhoods, and ethnic and cultural groups.

We incorporated this into our day in a variety of ways.

Miss Melinda offered a music and movement opportunity in the habitrail area where she started off the conversation by asking Lulu, “Lulu, are you the same as Riley?” She laughed and said, “No! He’s a boy!” We talked about the similarities and differences between us all. The fact that we’re all people was mentioned as a similarity.

We compared us as people and then switched to comparing and contrasting instruments. Children were asked how much they know about instruments as well as what instruments we have available here at Wee Friends. The following were shouted out: piano, drums, guitar, and shakers (maracas).

This conversations lead into DOING! Friends each got their own instrument and proceeded to make music by walking throughout the house.

As we played our different instruments, we marched to a beat.

Jackson and Addi started their Kindergarten year today!

The FAB for the week was able to be brought into our large group discussion today. We read two stories that discussed the similarities and differences in each other as well as our families.

The first story we read was a new Robert Munsch book that I found at the library! After reading, ‘Purple, Green, and Yellow’, we talked about the color of our skin and how no one is the same. Clara commented, “I’m beige!”

The second story we read was, ‘Meet the Parents’, which was a story displaying what parents do for their children. I started off the story asking, “Raise your hand if you have one parent? Raise your hand if you have two parents?” In this group, everyone raised their hand for two parents. We talked about how some children only have one parent. A child raised her hand and said, “Maybe because their other parent went away?”

After our stories, we dissected all of our families. We found out how many people are in each of our families. “Everyone’s family looks different”, said Clara.

We headed outside this morning where we realized that the rain that we got over the weekend washed away some of the sandbox. Clara, Jackson, and Addi took the initiative to form a group to collect the sand that was on the sidewalk and transfer it using trucks and buckets. They moved it to the areas of the sandbox that got eroded.

We all pitched in. Great team effort!

After sweeping up leftover sand, the three amigos headed around the yard cleaning up other areas that were a little messy.

Our Monday was terrific! We hope you had a great day too.

Breakfast– Bagels with sunflower seed butter and pears.

Lunch– Hummus on tortillas, oranges/pears, and green beans/carrots.

PM snack– Yogurt with fresh PPC peaches.

Wee Sprout– Green beans and carrots.

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 8/15

We have a new friend at Wee Wee! Welcome Sonya and her parents Alison and Cheng to the Wee Friends family. We are happy you’re here!

Enjoy the photos from today!

Breakfast was bagels with butter and pear. Lunch consisted of tortilla with hummus, pears, and peas. Afternoon snack was organic whole milk yogurt with pears.

Link to photos: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIulhpAPlctJMzEjtxpKZg

Have a great night!

Amanda

Enjoy the pictures!

Breakfast was Cheerios and pear. Wee sprout was corn. Lunch consisted of whole wheat flat bread with refried beans and cheese, pear, and corn. Afternoon snack was mozzarella string cheese and pretzels.

Link to photos: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIulho4x0YT9GdmWT0Zh8g

Have a great night!

Amanda

Happy Friday!

Today, we said good-bye to our curious, enthusiastic friend, Emerson. She’s off to do big things in kindergarten! We hope you have a wonderful time at your new school! We’ll miss you!

Miss Melinda’s neighbor gave us two tonka trucks to borrow! We took turns sharing the new trucks that we used in the rock area. The green truck was a tad involved! There was a lever that friends had to lift to move the bed up and down.

Our curious friends are always anxious when we get new toys to investigate!

Breakfast– Rice cakes with no nut butter and pears.

Lunch– Melted, shredded cheese of flatbread, cantaloupe, and green beans.

PM snack– Colby jack block cheese and grapes.

Wee Sprouts– Broccoli.

Have a lovely weekend!

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 8/12

Enjoy the pictures from our water day!

Breakfast was eggs with cheese and bananas. Lunch consisted of whole grain brown rice with shredded chicken, strawberries, bananas, and peas. Afternoon snack was colby cheese and graham crackers.

Link to photos: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIulho0aYtV01d2PJeLQNw

Have a great night!

Amanda

Hello!

We had a FABULOUS water day. There have been a few friends asking for a water day over the last couple of weeks so we indulged .

There was so much imagination spurring from our friends today! A group gathered in the sandbox where there were buckets and a water hose provided. The building of many mud structures occurred and prompted children to say, “Mud puddle!”

Whenever a child got especially dirty, they quickly ran through the sprinkler to get a little cleaner. An older friend commented, “It’s kind of like a car wash!”

We had a lovely Thursday. We hope you did too!

Breakfast– Whole grain cheerios and banana.

Lunch– Organic brown rice with chicken, oranges/banana, and a mixture of cherry tomatoes, cucumber, and pepper.

PM snack– Pumpkin seeds and graham crackers.

Wee Sprout– Cucumber and red pepper

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 8/11