Good Afternoon, I hope you all had a fabulous weekend. Thank you to all of you that came to wish Miss Melinda well wishes and a very happy retirement.

“What the hand does, the mind remembers.” Maria Montessori 

Please Note: Our winter packet will be sent home next week and will include:

-2018 Tax Receipts

-Parent- Teacher conference information for our conference day on February 15th, 2019 (this will include both a meeting time preference form and a form to communicate what you would like to discuss at the conferences).

-Re-enrollment forms for Fall 2019, which will be due with the re-enrollment fee due no later than Friday, February 22nd, 2019.

Friends engaged themselves in a fun sensory project this morning. Miss Rebekah offered shaving cream with sparkles mixed in to make fluffy snow on paper.

Not only is this activity a sensory activity, but it also helps us strengthen our hand-eye coordination and the use of our fine motor skills as well as our color recognition.

Breakfast: Whole wheat bagels with peanut butter and banana.

Lunch: Whole wheat pasta with shredded cheese and marinara sauce, broccoli, and apples.

Snack: Whole milk yogurt with graham crackers.

Wee Sprouts: Peas.

Have a night night!

Marty

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

Happy Friday!

We are looking forward to seeing everyone on Sunday at 2:00 (until 5:00) for Melinda’s Retirement Open House! If you haven’t RSVP’d yet, please don’t let that stop you from coming on Sunday. We can’t wait to celebrate Melinda and all that she’s given to Wee Friends over the past several years!

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Have you ever sat down at the dinner table and asked your child, “So, what’d you do today?” and they answer with a resounding, “Nothing.”?

Trust me. You’re not the only one .

After a day full of peer interactions, conversations with teachers, and stimulation, it can be hard for children to form thoughts about their day. One way to start conversation is to look over the blog (or EP!) to see if there are any pictures of your child! When a child sees a picture of themselves, it unlocks all of their feelings and thoughts from the day and suddenly, a five minute story spills out.

https://www.naeyc.org/resources/blog/self-directed-play-moment

Breakfast– Rice cakes with peanut butter and fresh grapes.

Lunch– Turkey/ham on whole wheat flatbread, fresh pineapple/grapes, and fresh broccoli/carrots.

PM snack– Our homemade applesauce from yesterday (YUM!) and goldfish.

Wee Sprout– Fresh broccoli/cauliflower and carrots.

Have a fantastic weekend!

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 1/11

Happy Friday! I hope you all have had a great week.

“ALL children can… explode into LEARNing.” ~Maria Montessori

Another engaging activity that was introduced into the classroom was the wooden blocks. Jack loves these blocks to build roads and towers. Jack and his friends will race their cars over the paths of blocks they have made and then park them.

This activity enhances hand-eye coordination, cognitive thinking skills, as well as fine motor growth.

While in the same direct area, we can also join with the wooden block activity, the Duplo blocks and little Duplo people. These two activities brought together add in many more opportunities to build an even more creative and engaging play time.

Later in the day, we made our way into the kitchen area of the classroom and engaged in puzzles and pegs with peg boards.

Fine motor, color recognition, hand-eye coordination, along with cognitive thinking skills are all being used within these two separate activities.

Breakfast: Whole wheat toast with peanut butter and banana.

Lunch: Whole wheat flat bread with turkey lunchmeat, peas, and fresh pineapple.

Snack: Whole grain cheese crackers and Colby jack cheese cubes.

Have a wonderful weekend, and we’ll see you on Monday morning.

Marty

LINK TO PICTURES:https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljaROOrFiaE3Y7b1IDg

Good Afternoon!

Miss Kim had several helpers this morning at the island! By working together, a fresh, homemade batch of applesauce was made. After Miss Kim cut up the apples into medium sized pieces, children used a chopper to cut the apples into smaller pieces which eventually went into the crockpot. We are so anxious to try it! Our friends take great pride in helping out in the kitchen.

Children made decision after decision today as they decided what activity to start. The setup of our classroom allows children to make their own decisions depending on their interests at the time. Emma and Sophia stood at the easel where they painted several different pieces of art while David completed five 24 and 48 piece puzzles. Our schedule is extremely loose to where we can change things up depending on how the class as a whole is doing.

Throughout the environment, there are several ‘quiet’ spaces that are available for children who need a quiet moment or even alone time. The habitrail offers children a chance to move their bodies and get some energy out by climbing and jumping even though we’re inside! It is the perfect gross motor area, especially during the winter months. We utilized every space today, making for a well rounded Thursday!

Breakfast– Kix and banana.

Lunch– Brown rice with shredded pork and cheese, fresh oranges/banana, and fresh broccoli/cherry tomatoes.

PM snack– Pumpkin seeds and whole wheat crackers.

Wee Sprout– Fresh broccoli/cauliflower.

Have a wonderful evening!

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 1/10

Good Afternoon.

“We shall walk together on this path of life, for all things are part of the universe and are connected with each other to form one whole unity.” ~Maria Montessori

We absolutely love our new reading center. Friends consistently visit this area multiple times throughout their day. Maybe it’s the larger space, maybe it’s the soft cushiony feel of the carpet, or maybe it’s the ease of placing our books back onto the shelf?!?! I’m guessing, it’s all of those things wrapped into one! It’s AWESOME!!!  

Early literacy is a crucial part to a child’s early years and beyond. We are very fortunate to have a great space to read to our friends as well as having their desire and love for reading.

Why is Early Literacy so important? According to, Raising readers.org, “Children introduced to reading early on tend to read earlier and excel in school compared to children who are not exposed to language and books at a young age.

Reading, writing, singing, and talking – beginning from birth – profoundly influence literacy and language development, the foundations for all other learning.”  (www.healthychildren.org)

Our friends also have a great passion and love for working with puzzles.

We have many different age appropriate puzzles for each age range of child. Jack engages in the more difficult foam puzzles with many pieces, while Daniel is working on a smaller puzzle with less pieces and that are larger in size.

Puzzles are a great activity to enhance hand-eye coordination, fine motor and cognitive skills.

Breakfast: Whole grain Kix with clementine’s.

Lunch: Whole grain brown rice with shredded pork, peas, and oranges.

Snack: Mozzarella string cheese, and graham crackers.

Wee Sprouts: Broccoli.

Have a wonderful Thursday evening.

Marty

LINK TO PICTURES: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljaNnv2qh8N46RqqQ7g

Happy Snowy Wednesday!

“The essence of independence is to be able to do something for one’s self.”  ~Maria Montessori

Please Note: With weather quickly changing, please allow enough time to safely pick your child/ren up by 5:30. The roads are an ever changing circumstance and we want you all to arrive safely and not be rushed to make it by closing time.  Also, if you would like to speak with your child’s teachers, please arrive by 5:15 or so, so that there will be enough time allotted to freely talk and able to exit the classroom by 5:30. Thank you for your attention on this matter.

Today was a great day to engage in a sensory activity. Miss Rebekah offered our friends’  to paint snowflakes. She used coffee filters with blue glittery paint and our little ones were so excited! We finally are able to enjoy the beauty of fresh snow falling, so what better activity than painting a “snowflake?!

Breakfast: Whole grain oatmeal with honey and pears.

Lunch: Scrambled eggs, while wheat butter toast, peas, and pears.

Snack: Wole wheat Ritz crackers with hummus.

Have a nice night, and drive safely.

Marty

LINK TO PICTURES: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljaJy0pJgSFSVCH7Z5g

Good Afternoon!

What a Wednesday we had! Enjoy the pictures!

Breakfast– Whole grain oatmeal with honey and fresh oranges.

Lunch– Scrambled eggs with whole wheat bread, fresh apples/oranges, and fresh carrots/cherry tomatoes.

PM snack– Tortilla chips and hummus.

Wee Sprout– Fresh carrots/peppers.

Have a great night!

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 1/9

Good Afternoon.

To aid life, leaving it free, however, that is the basic task of the educator.” Maria Montessori

While we had added in these fun, and colorful Duplo blocks prior to break, Miss Tami added the green Duplo boards on top of a shelf for even more enjoyment.

This activity enhances color recognition, hand-eye coordination, cognitive awareness, and the use of the child’s imagination.

Jack and his friend Evie displayed great parallel play while engaged in the Duplo activity. Parallel play is defined as, “A form of play in which children play adjacent to each other, but do not try to influence one another behavior.” (www.en.m.wikipedia.org)

This type of behavior typically begins after a child turns one, but we do tend to see this play more often in older children around two years of age.

We were able to go outdoors today and it was wonderful! We LOVE our new environment, but we also were very excited about going outside to play.

We were happily greeted by our older friends and teachers in the preschool classroom as well. What a great day!!

Breakfast: Whole grain Cheerios and pears.

Lunch: Whole wheat flour tortillas with hummus, corn and peas, along with oranges.

Snack: Whole grain cinnamon raisin bagels with butter and apples.

Wee Sprout: Corn.

Have a fantastic night.

Marty

LINK TO PICTURES: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljaITYizB0lsH92CvVg

Happy Tuesday!

**A reminder that Wee Friends will be closed on Friday, February 15th for conferences! Thank you!

The art table is open all day, every day which gives children unlimited opportunities to write, draw, and explore using their fine motor skills. During journaling time, it is a ten to fifteen minute time frame where we horn in on writing skills, letters, sounds, etc. It is extremely age appropriate because at the age of 3, children are not usually ready for this step. However, 4 and 5 year old children are ready for a more structured writing experience.

During journal time, children are asked to draw a picture. There are no rules or suggestions given by teachers. This is a time where children use their imagination. After they’re finished, we work with children to write a description about their journal. Depending on their readiness, children either use kid spelling or collaborate with a teacher to write the description. We’ve been working on letter identification along with the sounds that letters make. It is an ongoing process where children thrive and continue to grow in their knowledge and confidence.

“Generative knowledge describes children’s abilities to write phrases and sentences that convey meaning. It is the ability to translate thoughts into writing that goes beyond the word level (Puranik & Lonigan 2014). During early childhood, teachers are laying the foundation for generative knowledge as children learn to express themselves orally and experiment with different forms of written communication, such as composing a story, writing notes, creating lists, and taking messages. Children can dictate words, phrases, or sentences that an adult can record on paper, or they can share ideas for group writing.”

https://www.naeyc.org/resources/pubs/yc/nov2017/emergent-writing

Our Tuesday was full of exploration in various areas of the environment. It feels so good to get back to our normal routine!

Breakfast– Chex and fresh raspberries.

Lunch– Hummus on whole wheat tortillas, fresh apples, and fresh cucumber/pepper.

PM snack– Whole wheat plain bagel with cream cheese and fresh pears.

Wee Sprout– Fresh cucumber/pepper.

Have a fantastic evening.

-Mindy

Link to pictures: WF 1/8

Happy New Year and Welcome back! We hope you all had a wonderful holiday season.

“Imagination does not become great until human beings, given the courage and strength, use it to create.” ~Maria Montessori

We want to give a HUGE thanks to Tami and her husband Charles for making the Wee Wee classroom even more beautiful than it already was.

Tami and Charles worked the entire two weeks of vacation to beautify and make our classroom better than ever.

We are VERY fortunate to have Tami’s awesome ability to envision such miraculous ways to make our classroom its very best! THANK YOU TAMI & CHARLES, YOU GUYS ROCK!

The new dramatic play/housekeeping center was a big hit with our friends today! We have new activities within the center as well and the brand new construction that our friends were so excited about.

We have new blocks to build and create with, we have loose part activities, and a new reading center. There was so much for us to engage in and we LOVED every minute.

Breakfast: Whole wheat toast with butter and banana.

Lunch: Whole grain pasta with butter and shredded chicken, fresh cucumber, and grapes.

Snack: Whole milk Greek yogurt with graham crackers.

Wee Sprouts: Peas.

Have a wonderful night!

Marty

LINK TO PICTURES:  https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtTCDmdhjIuljaEf8F_UFwY8ECK8-A