Good Afternoon!

Here are a few pictures from throughout our day.

In large group, we read a book titled, ‘What The Ladybug Heard’. The storyline involved a ladybug that lived on a farm with many other animals. The difference was that the ladybug never spoke, until she needed to. She saved the cow from being stolen by rallying together the animals to devise a plan to help!

After the story was read, we came up with a list of animals that we remembered from the story. As a group, we sounded out the words, noting most of the consonants we heard. As I wrote out the animals that we recalled from the story, many friends noted, “That’s a lowercase ‘o’.” As I was putting the book away, a friend asked, “Why is the title in all uppercase letters?” We’ve been recognizing the difference between lowercase and uppercase letters throughout our environment today.

After all of the animals were written down, friends started to count out the syllables in each words with any prompting! We found out that almost all of the animal words are one syllable words.

K.RF.2.4: Identify and name all uppercase and lowercase letters of the alphabet.

Breakfast– Whole grain oatmeal with honey and PPC red grapes.

Lunch– Scrambled eggs with English muffins/tortillas, oranges, and PPC green beans.

PM snack– Blue corn chips with black beans.

Wee Sprout– PPC peppers.

Have a lovely night.

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 1/18

**An important announcement. Please see a teacher for an envelope when you pick up today. The envelope contains a conference form that needs to be filled out and returned by this Friday, January 20th.  Thank you!

This morning at the art table we did a crayon resist painting. We first made a drawing on our paper with a white crayon or another color. We then painted over them and were amazed how crayon made our drawing show through the paint.

`

Many friends chose work individual jigsaw puzzles.  Jackson and Maddie tried out a math game together called 4-Way Countdown!

We turned on some music and friends enjoyed moving their bodies all around. Miss Mindy commented to Tate about his dancing, and Rosemary said, “What about my dancing?” We have a great bunch of dancers at Wee Friends!

In large group, we read ‘The Day The Crayons Came Home’. We loved the humor in the story. Many parts of the story elicited laughter! The FAB focused on syllables continued to be our focus during group time. After we read our story, we looked at all of the markers in the box and said each color aloud. We came to the conclusion that most colors are only one syllable words! Today, we put our hand under our chin to count syllables with given words.

K.RF.3.2: Orally segment words into syllables.

Breakfast: Kashi Cinnamon Harvest cereal and pears.

Lunch: Hummus on whole wheat bread/tortilla, strawberries and cherry tomatoes.

Afternoon Snack: Whole wheat bagel and cream cheese.

Wee Sprouts: Cauliflower.

Have a great night!

-Rebekah and Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 1/17

Please note: We are almost out of plastic bags. Any donations would be appreciated!

Today we played with homemade flubber! It’s a mixture of warm water, white glue, borax, and a few drops of food coloring.

Flubber is thick, rubbery, and a little slimy. Our friends enjoyed poking their fingers in it, pulling it into pieces, and squeezing it in their hands.

We also discovered that it’s stretchable. A few friends held their flubber above their bowls and watched how far it could stretch before breaking apart. This new sensory activity was a big hit with our friends!

Breakfast was Kix and bananas. Wee sprout was carrots. Lunch consisted of whole wheat bread with hummus, banana, and carrots. Afternoon snack was toasted whole wheat bagels with cream cheese.

Link to photos: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIulh54Pw4dZ7gP6GLPqMA

Have a great night!

Amanda

Good Afternoon!

Important announcement:

Wee Friends will be closed on Friday, February 17^th for our spring parent-teacher conference day. 

Since we want this to be a focused time, staff will be available at the WWF house to watch your children while we conference.

· ALL families will conference in the WF house.  We will have 2 conferences running simultaneously.  Therefore it is important that we begin and end on time so the conferences are not interrupted.

· Families with multiple children will have their conferences scheduled back to back if possible.

Please look in your cubbies on this Friday, 1/20 for a packet that contains:  2016 YE Tax Receipts, a conference sign-up sheet, and your 2017 Fall Re-enrollment forms (form and fee due Feb 24^th, 2017).  There will be a Pre-Conference form distributed closer to the conferences for parents to guide topics to be discussed during your meeting time.

____________________________________________________________________

Our morning sign in and welcome activity focused around one of our FAB’s for the week:

K.RF.2.4: Identify and name all uppercase and lowercase letters of the alphabet.

Lulu, Maddie, and a few other friends worked on a 48 piece floor puzzle this morning. They worked well together, finishing sections of the puzzle at different times. Floor puzzles challenge our spatial awareness as well as our resiliency!

The art table was turned into a winter wonderland. Friends used various tools and materials to make snowflakes to put around the room. Glue, glitter, and paint were applied to the paper and individual snowflakes.

We read one of our favorite books today in large group: ‘The Gruffalo’. Before we read the story, we went over syllables and how we recognize them.

We went around the circle and counted syllables for each of our friends names. For example, we said, “Tate” and clapped with the number of sounds we heard which ended up being one. Another way we count syllables is by putting our hand under our chin and saying the word. The number of times our chin moves is the number of syllables in a word.

After we revisited syllables, we read ‘The Gruffalo’. We picked out various words in the story and at the end, we counted how many syllables were in each given word. We made a graph to demonstrate the different amount of syllables we heard. At the end, we counted the number of words in each column, finding out that we had the most two syllable words! (K.RF.3.2: Orally segment words into syllables.)

When we came to calendar, friends asked what today was since there was writing on today’s date. Martin Luther King Jr.’s name was brought up and most friends had never heard his name before. I discussed how he stood up for what he believed in and helped a lot of people so we celebrate him one day every year! At this age, it’s important to learn the basic understanding of important days as well as people that make up our country’s history.

“If you can’t fly then run. If you can’t run then walk. If you can’t walk then crawl. But whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.” -MLK Jr.

“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, what are you doing for others?” –MLK Jr.

Breakfast– Whole wheat toast with butter and apples.

Lunch– Whole wheat pasta with butter and chicken, oranges, and carrots.

PM snack– Whole milk yogurt and strawberries.

Wee Sprout– Carrots.

Have a lovely night!

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 1/16

Wee Friends will be closed on Friday, February 17^th for our spring parent-teacher conference day.

Since we want this to be a focused time, staff will be available at the WWF house to watch your children while we conference.

· ALL families will conference in the WF house.  We will have 2 conferences running simultaneously.  Therefore it is important that we begin and end on time so the conferences are not interrupted.

· Families with multiple children will have their conferences scheduled back to back if possible.

Please look in your cubbies on this Friday, 1/20 for a packet that contains:  2016 YE Tax Receipts, a conference sign-up sheet, and your 2017 Fall Re-enrollment forms (form and fee due Feb 24^th, 2017).  There will be a Pre-Conference form distributed closer to the conferences for parents to guide topics to be discussed during your meeting time.

Breakfast was whole wheat toast with butter and cinnamon and kiwi. Wee sprout was peas. Lunch consisted of whole wheat pasta with chicken, kiwi, and peas. Afternoon snack was organic whole milk yogurt and string cheese.

Link to photos: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIulh50J8ydcQaE_cX3DZA

Have a great night!

Amanda

Happy Friday! We started the morning by writing in our journals.

Then we moved on to creating some new art to hang in the classroom. Everyone has new and old art in their cubbies to take home!

Later, our friends moved to the front of the classroom and decided to play with animals. They worked together to line them all up for us to see.

There was gross motor fun after snack. Ruby, Sophia, and Sonya raced through the habitrail together while other friends took turns on the trapeze swing.

Breakfast was Cheerios and bananas. Lunch consisted of whole wheat tortillas with hummus, bananas, and carrots. Afternoon snack was graham crackers and string cheese.

Link to photos: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIulh5w50_Li7uKx0GdY_A

Have a great weekend!

Amanda

Happy Friday!

This morning, we had a fruit taste testing experience. I put a grapefruit and mango in the middle of the island. We smelled each piece of fruit before I cut them as well as after to see if there was a difference.

First, we tasted the grapefruit which was overwhelmingly a success! We talked about the taste of the grapefruit and Jackson offered up, “It tastes sour!”

We cut up the mango and I explained that there’s a big seed in the middle so we have to eat around it. Friends said that the mango was sweeter than the grapefruit.

We love to expand our taste buds and try new things!

Rosemary and Anna used the rubber bands to make designs on the boards. Their fine motor skills allowed them to expand the bands and hook them onto the stubs on the board. Rosemary commented, “Mine are going this way!”

We were able to make it outside this morning. This made us ALL so happy. After we got outside, we observed ice all around us including the flower pot and on the trees!

Of course, we had to taste the ice and many of us commented on how cold it was.

Rosemary and Tate found it difficult to dig in the sand and rocks. We talked about how both areas are frozen because of how cold it is outside!

In large group, we first read a story titled, ‘Hurty Feelings’. It centered around a hippopotamus who always got her feelings hurt even when given a compliment. At the end of the story, she learned how to take compliments positively instead of in a negative way. We discussed ways we can be a good friend.

There were many words in the story that were new to us so when we came upon a word we didn’t know the definition to, we talked about it. The following words were discussed; fragile, weep, wail, loneliness, pudgy, and trunk (when referring to an elephant). We’re quite inquisitive when it comes to new words so we talked about each word and any examples. We discussed the word loneliness and friends began to understand that it refers to playing alone or being by yourself. A friend commented, “Sometimes I feel lonely when I don’t have any friends to play with.”

A web was created on the chalkboard and each friend came up with a suggestion, ranging from ‘saying I’m sorry’ to ‘touch gently’.

Everyday, we look at the calendar and count how many days we’ve marked off. Not only does this allow us to work on our one to one correspondence skills but it expands our number sense knowledge.

We had a GREAT week back to school.

Breakfast– Rice cakes with no nut butter and blueberries.

Lunch– Hummus on tortillas, blueberries/clementine’s, and cherry tomatoes/cauliflower.

PM snack– Pretzels and block cheese.

Wee Sprout– Cauliflower.

Have a terrific weekend!

-Mindy

 Link to pictures: WF 1/13

Good Afternoon!

There were many ‘P’ activities that drew our attention today including:

Puzzles.

Pattern blocks.

Play-dough.

In large group, we read a story called, ‘Something Might Happen’. The storyline of the book revolved around the main character who was scared of everything that COULD happen. After the story was finished, we had a discussion about what we’re scared of. There were many of us, teacher included, that are scared of the dark and scary nightmares. As a group, we talked about how even if we have scary nightmares, we wake up and get hugs from mommy and daddy which help us feel all better. It’s important to be aware of our emotions and how certain things make us feel.

Breakfast– Cheerios and blueberries.

Lunch– Organic, brown rice with quinoa and chicken, banana, and PPC broccoli.

PM snack– Roasted chick peas and whole wheat crackers.

Wee Sprout– Cucumbers and green beans.

Have a great night!

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 1/12

We started our morning in the kitchen playing with shaving cream. Franklin pretended it was soap and rubbed his hands together while saying, “Frankie washing!”

We played dress up while also listening and dancing to music. A few of our friends asked for their picture to be taken after putting on a new hat.

A lot of our day was spent in the habitrail area. The soft stars were popular today. Ruby pretended one of them was a cave that she needed to crawl through.

Breakfast was toast with butter and cinnamon and pear. Wee sprout was mixed veggies. Lunch consisted of whole grain brown rice with quinoa, blueberries, clementine’s, and mixed veggies. Afternoon snack was wheat crackers with cream cheese.

Link to photos: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIulh5oWAovE88wSFNc-Ow

Have a great night!

Amanda

Good Afternoon!

It was quite a hands on Wednesday here at Wee Friends.

We tested our puzzle abilities by challenging ourselves with new puzzles that we’ve never done before. A few friends who normally do the 24 piece wooden puzzles decided to try the 48 piece puzzles. Lucy and Calix teamed up and finished a few by working together.

A group of friends started their morning off by learning how to play the game ‘I Spy’. The game had children using their sight to find various items on their piece of card board. Once they found all of their items, they hit the buzzer (this was their FAVORITE part!).

The art table opened up after breakfast to allow children the opportunity to create! Maddie used several materials to build a bed for her yellow giraffe.

Jackson requested that we investigate volcanoes so Miss Melinda called a couple friends over to the art table to explore this idea more. Using red tubs and glass bottles, we created our own volcanoes! Each child took a spoon and poured a spoonful of baking soda into their glass jar before vinegar was added. Once the vinegar was added, friends anxiously waited to see what would happen. When the liquid started to bubble over the top, friends wanted to see this over and over again!

Just look at our faces .

The sensory table was made available again this morning as friends moved the moon sand throughout the container using various materials such as cups, spoons, and rolling pins.

Large group explored their thoughts and put them on paper. From pools to fairy gardens, our creativity was bursting!

After reading, “Who Pushed Humpty Dumpty?”, which contained various nursery tales, we discussed rules that we follow at home. Earlier in the week, we came up with a list of rules that we follow here at school. So, today we shared rules that our Mommy’s and Daddy’s make us follow at home. We had a hard time choosing just one so many children shared multiple rules that they follow at home. Addi shared that she’s not supposed to work with her daddy’s tools. She looked at her friends and said, “I can’t work with them because they’re for grown ups and they could hurt me!”

Breakfast– Whole grain oatmeal with cinnamon and pears/kiwi.

Lunch– Refried bean and melted shredded cheese tortillas, PPC green grapes, and cucumbers.

PM snack– Air popped popcorn and raisins.

Wee Sprout– PPC peppers.

Have a terrific night!

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 1/11