WF, 2/13/2020 | Wee Friends Early Childhood Program LLC

Good Afternoon!

We read a story in K/PREK1 focused on the main character, Anna, as she went through a climbing journey. First, she climbed her refrigerator. Then, she climbed her dresser. Finally, she attempted the tree in her backyard. It’s a book we read often and it’s stories like this that I use to gage children’s comprehension as well as their memory of events.

After we read, ‘Up, Up, Down’, we jotted down specific things we took away from the story such as characters, setting, and three events that occurred.

K.RL.2.3: Identify important elements of the text (e.g., characters, settings, or events).

Our Thursday morning was full of stories, determination while trying to balance play fruit, and various building activities. Several rounds of ‘Go Fish’ were played, which has been one of our favorite activities lately!

Tami had posted this article to the Wee Friends Facebook page and there were many quotes that jumped out at me but this one feels very ‘Wee Friends’:

“But it’s crucial to keep in mind that intentional, attuned teaching is the opposite of a free-for-all where children are running the show. Quality preschool teachers are intentional about everything they do: the classroom routines, the physical environment, the schedule, the types of materials they make available for children to explore and manipulate. These teachers do an extraordinary amount of observation and reflection—and it’s really almost impossible to do that in a vacuum: the best preschools have collegial, inquiry-based cultures so that they can continually experiment with and modify their learning environments to take advantage of children’s natural curiosity.”

We have limited transitions throughout the day as most children don’t enjoy this time. It causes anxiety and unrest as children don’t like cleaning up what they’re doing, especially if it’s unnecessary. Our day is very flexible which allows us to change up our routine to meet the needs of our current group of children. For example, creating our PREK2 group to satisfy the needs of those children.

We value play at Wee Friends because we know it’s not JUST play. It’s a time where children are navigating and strengthening their social skills. It’s where children explore spatial relations and cultivate their imagination.

“We’re seeing more dysfunctional play in modern industrialized societies. Children don’t play as much in mixed-age groups, where younger kids can learn from older ones, and the older children in turn have to learn to be gentle and fair with their littlest players. Children have less free time to mess around and make their own rules. They need the time and space to learn how to play effectively, and they require a culture that values play. Increasingly, we don’t seem to have that kind of early childhood culture.”