WWF 10/17/2018

Happy Wednesday!

“If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way.” ~ Napoleon Hill

The sensory scarves are a great activity for a multiple educational learning experience. Friends can feel the texture of the scarf, they can use their hand-eye coordination to pull the scarves out of the tissue box and then put it back in again, we can learn the color of the scarf, and also start to understand the concept of being able to see through particular items that we play with on a daily basis.

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Breakfast: Whole grain Cheerios and fresh PPC banana.

Lunch: Scrambled eggs with shredded mozzarella cheese, whole wheat buttered toast, peas, and fresh PPC banana.

Snack: Whole wheat/grain Ritz crackers with cheddar cheese slices.

Wee Sprouts: Corn.

Have a wonderful evening.

Marty

LINK TO PICTURES: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljPpMZI2sPTsufaf9sQ

WF, 10/17/2018

Good Afternoon!

K/PREK1 read a story about being different and the physical differences that we see in people. After we finished the story, children took turns coming up to the chalkboard. They were given two words and they had to decide which word was correct. For example, Maxwell came up to the chalkboard and had to decide which was heavier: a carrot or a cucumber. Once he figured out the answer, he put a sticker on the correct word. There were a few that we were unsure of so we used our friends to help guide us!

K.M.1: Make direct comparisons of the length, capacity, weight and temperature of objects, and recognize which object is shorter, longer, taller, lighter, heavier, warmer, cooler, or holds more.

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PREK2 used Montessori beads to compare and contrast length. We tend to use descriptive words such as longer, shorter, more, and less. Each child had a turn to come into the center and talk about what they saw as far as the different lengths of the Montessori bead strands laying in front of them.

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Some of our friends started painting their small pumpkin today! We used small paint brushes to cover the pumpkin before having the option of gluing two eyes onto it!

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Maxwell asked, “What’s next?!”, after he was done painting his pumpkin. So, we started a color exploration using three different water colors. As Maxwell and Ruby mixed their colors together, they saw them change and noted the changes that they were seeing!

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Hope everyone has a ‘relaxing’ evening.

“Children are great imitators, so give them something great to imitate.”

…in Franklins case, a bear Smile.

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Breakfast– Whole grain oatmeal with honey and PPC clementines.

Lunch– Scrambled eggs with whole wheat flatbread, PPC kiwi/banana, and PPC peppers/fresh carrots.

PM snack– Popcorn & Raisins

Wee Sprout– Fresh carrots.

-Mindy

The link is currently not working—I will post it tomorrow Smile. Thanks!

WF, 10/16/2018

Good Afternoon!

Enjoy a few pictures from our Tuesday!

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Breakfast– Kix and PPC blackberries.

Lunch– Refried beans and shredded cheese on whole wheat flatbread, fresh pineapple, and PPC peppers/cucumber.

PM snack– Whole wheat bagel with cream cheese and pears/oranges.

Wee Sprouts– PPC peppers/cucumber.

Have a great night!

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 10/16

WF, 10/15/2018

Good Afternoon!

**We are going to be doing our yearly Halloween parade! It will start at 4:00 on Wednesday, October 31st. Depending on the weather, we will either take a walk around the block or a short walk around Wee Friends/out in the back yard. If you have any questions, please ask! Smile

K-PREK1 read a story that we had never read before which opened the door for a good ol’ prediction session! Throughout the story, we stopped at four different places to talk about what might happen next. We used the text that we had read so far to help give us clues! Children shared their predictions aloud and stated why they felt that way. We really enjoyed the humorous nature of the story!

K.RL.2.4: Make predictions about what will happen in a story.

PREK2 read ‘Bear Feels Scared’ which lead into their message board. We discussed the things that made the bear feel scared and then towards the end, what made the bear feel safe. Children took turns coming to the board to write their name by their answer.

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An art activity was made available at the table. Each child who chose to do the activity picked one piece of paper that had a surprise drawing on it. After painting the paper with water colors, the picture was revealed!

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A group of our older peers used this morning to travel! Since it wasn’t a good farm morning, they decided to build a vehicle that took them all the way to Canada. They used different maps to help them navigate their way. Once they were there, they decided to come back home–Only to make a pitstop in Florida first.

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Rainy mornings are the perfect building mornings! Friends teamed up to build together using trio blocks and magnatiles which are far and away our favorites. Our cooperation skills are always on display as we work through problems that may arise Smile.

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Breakfast– Whole wheat toast/cinnamon raisin bagel with butter and PPC pears.

Lunch– Whole wheat pasta with butter and shredded chicken, PPC banana, and PPC cherry tomatoes.

PM snack– Whole milk yogurt with fresh pears.

Wee Sprout– PPC cherry tomatoes.

Have a great night!

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 10/15

WWF 10/16/2018

Happy Tuesday!

“A child’s play is not simply a reproduction of what he has experienced, but a creative reworking of the impressions he has acquired.” Vygotsky

Please Note: There are slots above your child’s cubby that are intended for their creative art work pieces.  Their name is placed on the slot, so you will be able to locate their goodies easily. Please make sure your child’s slot is emptied at least once a week, for more added artwork pieces to fit nicely. Thank you Smile 

We had a special little visitor this morning and our friends were very excited to see her, touch her, and talk with her. My granddaughter, Sierra was a hit with our WWF’ers. Miss Rebekah even had some enjoyment out of the visit by getting to snuggle with her.

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Our friends are working their legs climbing up the rocks next to the slides. This activity is a great way to build balance, confidence, and get our bodies in motion to reach our end goal of getting up to the platform to slide down the fun slides.

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Breakfast: Whole grain Kix cereal and fresh PPC banana.

Lunch: Whole wheat flatbread with mozzarella cheese and refried beans, corn, and fresh PPC banana.

Snack: Whole wheat English muffins with  peanut butter.

Wee Sprouts: Corn.

Have a nice evening.

Marty

LINK TO PICTURES: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljPgM6eZ_sxImTDsysw

WWF 10/15/2108

Good Afternoon! I hope you all had an enjoyable weekend.

“Peace is the beauty of life.”

Today was a great day to play with playdoh and use our fine motor, and hand-eye coordination skills. Teachers added in golf tee’s, tongue depressors, playdoh hammers, and cookie cutter shapes to make this activity even more fun and engaging.

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Rose enjoyed reading the story, Five little monkey’s. There were a couple of her friend’s that stood off to her side and listened along as she read her version of this fun story! We love listening to our friend’s read to us and the imaginations that shine through when they are reading.

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Breakfast: Whole wheat toast with butter, and apples.

Lunch: Whole wheat pasta with butter and shredded chicken, peas, and apples.

Snack: Whole milk yogurt and graham crackers.

Wee Sprouts: Peas.

Have a fantastic evening.

Marty

LONK TO PICTURES: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljPdwaVOsLgb-hwPTSg

WF, 10/12/2018

Happy Friday!

In May, I become a consultant for a company called Beautycounter. It’s a safe, toxin free line of family products, bath/body, skin care, and makeup. After talking with Tami, she thought I should share this tidbit of news as this company aligns with what we value here at Wee Friends which is safer, healthier options for ourselves and our kids.

After doing research about the products I was using daily back in January, I found Beautycounter which has a rigorous screening process for the ingredients that they use. The European Union bans 1,400 ingredients; Canada has banned 600; and the United Stated has only banned 30 ingredients to date which basically leaves an unregulated personal care industry. Beautycounter has banned 1,500+ ingredients which is above and beyond any other company.

If you have any questions or want to learn more, I’m always up for chatting as this has quickly become a second passion of mine.

Feel free to check out my website as well! I also have business cards with my information and a list of ingredients that should be avoided at all costs (this is called our ‘never list’) Smile.

https://www.beautycounter.com/melindashephard

-Mindy

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We continued one of the oldest Wee Friends traditions involving a pumpkin and golf tees! We took turns using wooden hammers to hammer golf tees into a pumpkin. This activity is not only fun but it uses our motor skills. Depending on the area of the pumpkin, it takes quite a lot of effort to hammer the golf tee all the way in.

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Starting yesterday afternoon, friends worked together to rake leaves into a pile. Once the pile was done, children took turns jumping into the leaf pile! It allowed us to display our teamwork skills!

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“No one would expect a child to learn to ride a bike by showing the child a drawing of a bicycle and by discussing the laws of balance. The child learns by riding the bike.”

-Lewis

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Breakfast– Rice cakes with peanut butter and PPC kiwi berries.

Lunch– Ham and shredded cheese on whole wheat tortillas, PPC banana/clementines/plums, and mixed vegetables.

PM snack– Mozzarella string cheese, triscuits, and PPC kiwi berries.

Wee Sprout– PPC cherry tomatoes.

Have a fantastic weekend!

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 10/12

WWF, 10/12/2018

Good Afternoon!

This morning we were busy making a leaf collage.  We all were given a paint brush to use to spread our glue onto our papers before sticking a real leaf that had fallen from the tree out back onto our papers. We also talked about all the colors we saw on our leaves.

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We then went out and had a dance party.  We were all jumping and moving our bodies to the music.

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We all requested the color viewing squares.  We took turns looking into the different color squares before some friends used them to build with.

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We then headed outside for some fresh Fall air.  We were busy tossing the leaves in the air, riding the teeter totter, playing in the sandbox and enjoyed seeing our sibling or all of our friends from the other classroom.

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Breakfast:  Whole grain wheat toast with peanut butter and fresh PPC banana.

Lunch:  Hummus on whole grain wheat tortillas, fresh PPC pears and peas.

Afternoon Snack: Goldfish crackers and  sliced cheddar cheese.

Wee Sprouts:  Carrots.

Have a fabulous weekend!

Rebekah

Link to pictures:  https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljPc60IMT7eQ6Iu-9fA

WF, 10/11/2018

Good Afternoon!

Maxwell and Lucy dove into several books this morning as we concentrated on different aspects of the makeup of stories.

Maxwell grabbed the story ‘The World’ which he quickly noticed that one page had no words. He said, “I know that they’re inside a house by a fire.” I asked him how he knew that and he said, “I looked at the picture.” We talked about how big of a roll pictures play in a story because besides the words, the picture can also tell you what’s happening.

Lucy looked at ‘Ten Little Ladybugs’ and commented on how on each page, there was one less ladybug. We talked about this pattern and how it was a number sequence so Lucy wrote out her numbers from 10 all the way down to 0.

I grabbed ‘Mud Puddle’ by Robert Munsch which we’ve read several times before. We looked at the cover and I asked Maxwell and Lucy to tell me everything they remember about this story. They gave me key, detailed events that happened in the story and even used some of the exact words that we’ve heard in the book.

K.RL.2.2: With support, retell familiar stories, poems, and nursery rhymes, including key details.

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In K-PREK1, we started off by looking at a picture that was on the board. I asked, “What is this?” and children quickly responded, “A calendar!”. We talked about things we see on a calendar to which friends answered months, days, weeks, birthdays, holidays, and stay at home days (which we highlight so we can see school days vs. stay at home days).

‘A Child’s Calendar’ was the book choice of the day which tied in nicely to our activity. Throughout the book, each month was talked about in detail and specific things that happen in each month. For this age, holidays and birthdays are easily identified!

K.M.2: Understand concepts of time, including: morning, afternoon, evening, today, yesterday, tomorrow, day, week, month, and year. Understand that clocks and calendars are tools that measure time.

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In PRE-K2, ‘The Big Leaf Pile’ was read and afterwards, children used their acquired knowledge to answer the question, “In what season do leaves fall from the trees?”. Friends took turns signing in under the correct season before heading to journal!

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We are getting into the fall/Halloween spirit. Two friends requested ‘spooky music’ as they call it which allowed us to practice our scary faces, stirring techniques, and rattling of our bones. We are becoming expert skeletons..

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Breakfast– Kashi Blueberry Clusters and PPC pears.

Lunch– Brown rice with shredded chicken, fresh apples, and PPC cherry tomatoes/cucumber.

PM snack– Whole wheat crackers and pumpkin seeds.

Wee Sprout– PPC cherry tomatoes/cucumber.

Have a great night!

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 10/11

WWF 10/11/2018

Good afternoon.

PLEASE NOTE: Now that the cooler weather has been entered into our daily lives, we ask that you please make sure your child has a warm coat, hat and gloves/mittens. Weather and temperature permitting, we will go outside and soak up as much of the fresh air as we can. Also, now that we mostly have older friends, and no babies in the classroom….when winter sets in, we will attempt to get out and play in the snow for at least 20 minutes. We also ask that you bring in a pair of snow pants and boots. Thank you in advance Smile

“Every child has… the right to be respected… the right to dream… the right to be loved and cared for…gifts that should be recognized and valued…the right to achieve their God-Given potential…the need for unconditional love!”  ~Pinterest.com

Today we were happily engaged in the Fall sensory table. Miss Rebekah added in some gourds, and Indian corn to our black bean and corn mixture and the kids absolutely loved it and had so much fun.

Daniel worked on taking the husk off the Indian corn, Jack enjoyed the bumpy feel of the gourds and taking the tongs to place a gourd into a bowl, and Evie enjoyed the entire sensory bin as a whole.

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We were able to get outside today, and we had a great time despite the major temperature change. Just look at all the fun we had today!

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Breakfast: Whole grain Cheerios, and banana.

Lunch: Whole grain rice with shredded chicken, carrots, and banana.

Snack: Pretzels and mozzarella string cheese.

Wee Sprouts: Peas.

Have a nice night!

Marty

LINK TO PICTURES:  https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljPVWe_pNhrAUWN_gTA