Happy Monday.
Enjoy the pictures from our snowy Monday!
Breakfast: Whole wheat toast with butter and cinnamon with oranges.
Lunch: Whole wheat pasta with butter and shredded chicken, broccoli,and apples.
Snack: Whole milk yogurt, and graham crackers.
Wee Sprouts: Corn.
Have a safe, warm and wonderful night.
Marty
LINK TO PICTURES: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIulja1cPdX1YK0mpUwNfA
Good Afternoon!
Enjoy the pictures from our day!
Breakfast– Whole wheat cinnamon raisin bagel with butter and banana.
Lunch– Whole wheat noodles with chicken and butter, fresh apples, and fresh carrots.
PM snack– Whole milk yogurt with banana.
Wee Sprout– Fresh carrots.
Have a great night! Stay safe!
-Mindy
Link to pictures: WF 1/28
Happy Friday!
In our K/PREK1 group, we read ‘The Umbrella’ written by Jan Brett. Throughout the story, there were several words that came upon that we (yes, kids and me!) weren’t too sure of the meaning. So, when we came upon these words, we looked them up and found out the context of each word. These are the three words we looked up:
kinkajou: a rainforest mammal of the family Procyonidae related to olingos, coatis, raccoons, and the ringtail and cacomistle. Kinkajous may be mistaken for ferrets or monkeys, but are not closely related to either.
tapir: a large, herbivorous mammal, similar in shape to a pig, with a short prehensile nose trunk.
quetzal: strikingly colored birds in the trogon family.
I make it very clear in our group that I don’t know everything. No one does. This helps our learning process because majority of the time, we’re learning together. I make various mistakes and don’t hind this fact because making mistakes is a part of life; for adults and children! Today’s group was full of new knowledge and retaining prior knowledge.
As each child rolled up their mat, they had the choice of identifying a shape on the chalkboard or saying aloud two words that rhyme!
We explored big gems at the light table this morning. The light table was out all morning which allowed us to manipulate several different items including gems and rocks.
Several of our older friends have showed increasing fasciation with ‘ka-noodle’ which is a game that I have from my childhood. It is a puzzle game that has six different levels of difficulty. It challenges us while offering a great tactile way to solve problems.
We hope everyone stays warm and safe this weekend! See everyone Monday!
Breakfast– Rice cakes with peanut butter and fresh raspberries.
Lunch– Ham/turkey on whole wheat bread, fresh pineapple/banana, and fresh cucumber.
PM snack– Pretzels and cottage cheese.
Wee Sprout– Fresh cucumber/green pepper.
-Mindy
Link to pictures: WF 1/25
Happy Friday!
“FREE CHOICE IS ONE OF THE HIGHEST OF ALL THE MENTAL PROCESSES.” Maria Montessori
Today we engaged ourselves in the ever so popular and fun shaving cream activity. We added in the larger cars and trucks to make this experience even more fun. 
Miss Marty then noticed some friends were “scribbling” in the cream with their fingers, so we made it an extended learning activity as this behavior demonstrates pre-writing skills.
Miss Rebekah would first draw the letter of the child’s first name (that was interested) and we would ask him or her what their letter was. We then asked them if they would like to trace their letter with their finger as well as asking them what that letter was. We also did this with shapes. They all enjoyed this learning activity and asked to keep going.
Pre-writing skills are the fundamental skills children need to devolve before they are able to write. According to the web site www.kidssense.com the “pre-writing expectation is that a child one to two years of age randomly scribbles and will spontaneously scribble in a vertical/horizontal and/or circular direction and imitate a horizontal/vertical/circular direction. Children from ages two to three years of age imitates a horizontal, a vertical and a circle.”
Two very popular books lately have been Frosty the Snowman by Jack Rollins and Steve Nelson and The Mitten by Jan Brett. We read these books by request several times throughout our day. We even ask some of our mommies and daddies to read these books.
Breakfast: Whole grain Cheerios and apples.
Lunch: Whole wheat bread with turkey lunchmeat, cucumbers, and fresh pineapple.
Snack: Whole grain cheese crackers and mozzarella string cheese.
Wee Sprouts: Cucumbers.
Have a wonderful weekend, we will see you on Monday. Stay warm.
Marty
LINK TO PICTURES: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljaxWeRyFn6j9vhpq9A
Good Afternoon!
**Tami wanted to make sure parents are aware that we WILL NOT delay or close just for temperature alone. When you add bad weather with very low temperatures, that’s when we start making delay/closing decisions. Thanks for everyone’s understanding. If you ever have any questions, please ask!
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We had a terrific day after our unexpected snow (ice) day yesterday!
I found this interesting article which focused on the energy level of children. Throughout the day, especially during the winter time when we’re inside more often than not, children’s energy levels are always on display. I have said a few times myself, “____, can I have some of your energy?!”
In the article linked below, the author states, “Youngsters have greater energy levels than professional endurance athletes, scientists have discovered, meaning it is virtually impossible for the average adult to keep up.”
How and why do children have so much consistent energy?!
“We found the children used more of their aerobic metabolism and were therefore less tired during the high-intensity physical activities,” said Sebastien Ratel, Associate Professor in Exercise Physiology who completed this study at the Univeriste Clermont Auvergne, France.
When children have the silly’s and need to get them out, they can’t possibly focus at the art table which calls for fine motor skills. Children need to get their gross motor fix before they can sit and sustain fine motor activities for an extended period of time.
Breakfast– Corn chex and fresh raspberries.
Lunch– Brown rice with shredded chicken, fresh oranges/banana, and fresh cucumber/cherry tomatoes.
PM snack– Pumpkin seeds and graham crackers.
Wee Sprout– Fresh peppers/cucumber.
Have a great night!
-Mindy
Link to pictures: WF 1/24
Good afternoon!
We are happy to see everyone back and safe from yesterday’s nasty weather. Please note that when SB/Mishawaka schools close solely due to frigid temperatures, WF will still be open. Tami will only close for extreme road conditions along with frigid temps.
“Imitation is the first instinct of the awakening mind.” ~Maria Montessori
Our little ones were happy to be back at school today engaging with their friends and teachers. It’s always nice to have a stay home day, but having fun with our friends makes us happy too. 
We all loved manipulating and utilizing our fine motor and cognitive skills with puzzles with one another today. Taking turns was also part of our puzzle fun.
Friends would take a glance at each others puzzles and decide that they would also enjoy that same puzzle. So we worked on being patient with one another and waiting for our turn.
Then we decided it would be a great idea to have a WWF dance party, so we listened to Pandora Music’s Choo Choo Soul. It’s just one of our favorite stations to listen to.
Getting our bodies in motion and utilizing our gross motor skills is so much fun. We LOVE to dance.
Breakfast: Whole wheat toast with butter and cinnamon with Apples. (Jack’s request)
Lunch: Whole grain brown rice with shredded chicken, broccoli florets, and oranges.
Snack: Whole wheat Ritz crackers with cheese cubes.
Wee Sprouts: Corn.
Have a wonderful night!
Marty
LINK TO PICTURES: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljawQaYxPpvgAN_n36g
Good Afternoon!
Everyone, please drive carefully this afternoon and tonight!
K/PREK1: After reading, ‘Hop On Pop’ written by Dr. Seuss, which allowed us to play on rhyming words, we looked at the shapes on the chalkboard paper. As a group, we talked about each shape. First, we identified each shape and then figured out how many sides each shape has. Lucy commented, “One similarity between the circle and oval is that both don’t have any sides!”.
As friends were called to roll up their mats, I asked them to come to the board and identify a specific shape. When Lucy and Max came to the board, I extended this exercise by asking them to identify a shape AND tell me a similarity between the rectangle and square, to which they both said, “They both have four sides!”
K.4.1: Identify and describe geometric objects: circle, triangle, square, rectangle, diamond, trapezoid, hexagon, octagon, parallelogram, sphere, and cube. (2006 standard)
In PREK2, children participated in a round of shape bingo! They used shape pieces to cover up basic geometric shapes while talking about simple characteristics of each.
We took the toys from the housekeeping loft and cleaned them using shaving cream. Once we were done, we took this lovely sensory experience to practice our letters and our names!
Breakfast– Kashi Blueberry Clusters with fresh pears/banana.
Lunch– Hummus on whole wheat flatbread, fresh cantaloupe, and fresh carrots.
PM snack– String cheese and whole wheat bagels with cream cheese.
Wee Sprout– Fresh carrots.
Have a fantastic night!
-Mindy
Link to pictures: WF 1/22
Good Afternoon.
“The unknown energy that can help humanity is that which lies hidden in the child.” ~Maria Montessori
Please Note: Due to the freezing rain, the roads are very bad. Please drive safe.
The sensory bin and playdoh activities were in full gear today! We worked on strengthening our fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination skills all while talking with our friends making wonderful conversation.
Last week, Miss Annastecia read the Going on a Bear Hunt story with us and we haven’t forgotten how much fun this story is not only to listen too, but to act out!
Our friendly stuffed bear was perfect in aiding us to look for a bear! We snuggled him, searched for him, and even ran away from him. “Ahhhh it’s a bear!!!” (As the story tells us, while the child is running away)
Breakfast: Kids choice… Whole grain Cheerios and Kix with apples.
Lunch: Whole wheat/grain flatbread with hummus, carrots, and banana.
Snack: Whole grain cinnamon raisin bagels with cream cheese, and oranges.
Wee Sprouts: Carrots.
Have a nice night! Stay warm.
Marty
LINK TO PICTURES: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljatEp1wAk0Md0-maoA
Happy Monday! We had a great warm day in the classroom.
We all were very interested in looking out the window to see what all we could see. We first noticed squirrels climbing together in the tree and then we lost sight of them and wondered where they went? We then noticed an icicle that was hanging from our gutter and watched to see what was happening? Even though it was very cold outside, we noticed it dripping water from the sunshine. Our minds were full of curiosity today.
Even though it was too cold outside to play, we brought some snow inside to use with our watercolors. We were given a white piece of paper, sprinkled fresh snow on top, then used our paint brush to paint watercolors onto the snow. As the snow melted on our papers, we saw we had created a beautiful watercolor painting.
Breakfast: Whole grain Cinnamon Raisin bagel with butter and fresh oranges.
Lunch: Whole grain pasta with black beans, fresh banana/apples and peas.
Afternoon Snack: Whole milk yogurt and graham crackers.
Hope you all stayed warm on this cold winter day.
Rebekah
Link to pictures: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljasUt6jxNdgqbtXozg
Happy Monday!
**Reminder: The ‘conference scheduling’ form is due by Wednesday, January 23rd. Thanks!
**We’re really trying to encourage friends to leave toys, books, etc. at home. Our cubby space is limited and lately, we’ve been quite productive at the art table so we’d like to keep our cubby space for gloves, hats, and art work. Thanks for your understanding!
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It was all about shapes this morning as we identified them, talked about different characteristics, and used them in our art. As we completed our shape collages, we counted the different shapes we used and discussed the number of sides each shape had.
K.4.1: Identify and describe geometric objects: circle, triangle, square, rectangle, diamond, trapezoid, hexagon, octagon, parallelogram, sphere, and cube. (2006 standard)
Breakfast– Whole wheat bagel with butter and banana.
Lunch– Whole wheat pasta with black beans and butter, fresh oranges, and fresh broccoli.
PM snack– Whole milk yogurt with fresh apples.
Wee Sprout– Fresh broccoli.
Have a terrific evening!
-Mindy
Link to pictures: WF 1/21
